A Distant Relation
by Shadow Master
Summary: BtVSNaruto It's Halloween and a bit of chaos is about to be unleashed on the people of Sunnydale. However for one Xander Harris he will discover a heritage he never knew he had.
1. Chapter 1

"A Distant Relation" by Shadow Master aka Shadow Master

email : : This is to make it clear to all of the owners and creators of both the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Anime series Naruto that I am not making one shred of profit from this fanfic crossover. I have no intention of claiming that I own any of the characters featured in either series nor the basic ideas contained therein. This is entirely for the pleasure and enjoyment of both me and the readers of this fanfic however many or few there may be. Therefore it would be appreciated it you did not bombard me with written letters or cease and desist orders from the local courts. Also filing a lawsuit for money would not be advisable as I have very little money at the moment and the costs of such court action would vastly outweigh any possible gain.

Note : I know that I am probably biting off more than I can chew by adding yet **another** crossover fanfic to the list of ones I already have in progress but I can't help it. The idea for this fanfic just popped in my head and I cannot seem to focus on any of my other fanfics until I at least get one chapter out. Of course if you guys turn out to like this idea I will run with it and see where it goes. After all the Naruto universe is interesting in and of itself but mixing it with BtVS is so interesting I just have to give it a shot. If any of you get mad that this fanfic is taking my attention away from the others than you can direct your blame to the awesome Naruto/BtVS fanfic called "Finding Balance" by Big Head, 3D Master and Joshua the Evil Guy. I took a look at their crossover fanfic and then a few others that existed before I downloaded the entire first season and watched it. IT WAS AWESOME! In any case I hope you like this fanfic and if you find any inconsistencies please send me an email and I will do my best either to fix the mistake or cobble together some sort of explanation to make it fit better in the fic.

Also this takes place during the famous and very convenient Halloween episode where our favorite chaos mage Ethan Rayne decided to spice things up a little. Now on with the show……

A Distant Relation Sunnydale High School, Afternoon, Student Lounge 

"Snyder must be in charge of the volunteer safety program for Halloween this year" Willow said as the gang watched Snyder rope yet another innocent student into signing up.

Xander smirked at the sight before saying "Note his interesting take on the volunteer concept."

It was an event that had been a part of the high school for as long as Xander could remember and he actually had some vague memories when some either high school student had taken him around when he was a rugrat. He couldn't place an actual name or anything but he was vaguely certain that the guy had dressed up in some kind of military outfit with lots of pockets. He was also fairly certain that he had been quite happy for the majority of the night until his chaperon had demanded half of everyone's haul for the night. That had been when things had soured significantly and he had gone home with some of the worst candy of his entire haul plus a few **shudder** healthy things. Of course said healthy things were soon dumped in the nearest trash-can on his way home so it wasn't all bad. Still that had been when he had come up with his rule that chocolate was the only type of Halloween treat that was worth getting and eating. Anything and everything else was something to be traded to your friends for even more chocolate or in some cases some of your friends' best toys.

"What's the deal?" Buffy asked seemingly somewhat puzzled by what was going on.

"Oh, a bunch of little kids need people to take them trick-or-treating. Sign up and get your own pack of sugar-hyped little runts for the night." Xander said with a grimace as his bestest bud Willow got a few things from her locker.

"Yikes. I'll stick to vampires." Buffy stated in perfect deadpan although it was clear she was repulsed by the idea of leading around a bunch of ankle-biters.

Unfortunately it looked like she was going to be repulsed by something even worse than a bunch of five year olds.

Principal Snyder.

"Miss Summers. Just the juvenile delinquent I've been looking for." Said the little troll Snyder with a look that said he was going to enjoy the misery he was about to cause.

"Principal Snyder!" Buffy exclaimed trying to sound like she was happy to see the little Quark look-a-like.

"Halloween must be a big night for you. Tossing eggs, keying cars, bobbing for apples, one pathetic cry for help after another. Well not this year missy." Snyder said as he led the vampire Slayer over to the sign up table.

"Gosh I'd love to sign up, but I've recently developed carpal tunnel syndrome, and can no longer hold a flashlight." Buffy stated trying to sound believable and innocent but judging from the look Snyder was giving her he didn't believe it one bit.

Picking up a clipboard the troll passed it to her and said "The program starts at four, have the children back by six."

Xander couldn't help but be amused by the situation his blonde buddy was in. After all here was a young woman who could bend steel with her bare hands and beat the tar out of a group of vampires and she was helpless against one short and ugly man. Looking at Willow he could tell that she too was amused by the expressions that were showing up on her only girl friend's face. That came to a swift end when not ten seconds later when Snyder passed both him and Willow identical clipboards and pens with a look that said they too would be aiding the young from four until six. For a moment he considered protesting further but when Willow caved in he did as well not wanting to abandon his friends in their time of need. Once their death warrants were signed they made their way over to a free table in the Student lounge to discuss their mutual fates.

"I can't believe this. We have to get dressed up and the whole deal?" he asked with lingering disbelief at their forced fate for this evening.

"Snyder said costumes were mandatory." Willow said sitting down with a glum look on her face.

"Great. I was going to stay in and veg. The one night a year when everything was supposed to be quiet for me." Buffy groused as she crossed her arms in dissatisfaction.

"Halloween quiet? Oh, I figured it'd be a big ol' vamp scarapalooza." Xander said in genuine surprise at the lack of demonic activity on the scariest of all nights.

"Not according to Giles. He swears that tonight is , like, dead for the undead. They stay indoors." Buffy replied as she looked at the other students walking down the hallways apparently conscripted into the same duty as she and her friends.

"Those wacky vampires! That's why I love 'em! They just keep you guessing!" Xander said as he got up from his seat and walked over to the soda vending machine.

Fishing in his pocket for change he had to wonder where the logic was in the vamps and demons choosing to stay inside on Halloween. After all it should be the one night where they can walk around without having to worry about being discreet with their activities. Sunnydale denial syndrome would be at an absolute high and a vamp draining a victim could be passed off as two people having some trick or treat fun. Not only vamps but also some of the more non-human demonic creatures could blend right in and be written off as someone wearing an elaborate costume. Popping a few coins in the right slot he pressed the button that would give him the soda of his choice … only to have nothing happen. Figuring it was probably just a glitch he pressed the button again but still no familiar sound of a soda can sliding down the chute. He started slapping it on the top and the sides in an effort to pound the machine into working but fate chose then to make things worse. Feeling a hand come down on his shoulder he turned his head and dropped his jaw in surprise when he identified the hand as belonging to the football jock Larry. Mixed feelings of both nervousness and anger were all he had as he waited to see what the ape in front of him wanted.

"Harris!" Larry said a little too loudly given that they were under five feet apart from one another.

"Hey Lar. You're lookin' cro-mag as usual. What can I do ya for?" Xander said trying to sound casual and non-pummel worthy.

"You and Buffy, you're just friends, right?" Larry asked actually sounding hopeful.

"I like to think of it as less of a friendship and more as a solid foundation for future bliss." Xander replied trying to make it clear by his tone that the jock had better look elsewhere for a bed partner.

"So, she, she's not your girlfriend?" Larry asked apparently confused by Xander's response to his earlier question.

"Alas no." Xander said as the truth hit home that no the woman of his dreams was not his just yet.

Seemingly encouraged by this response Larry moved around the Zeppo and said "Do you think she'd go out with me?"

"Well, Lar, that's a tough question to … no. Not a chance." Xander replied leading the football player on for a moment before slamming the truth into his face.

"Why not? I heard some guys say she was fast." Larry said turning back to Xander.

"I hope you mean like the wind." Xander said in a dead tone as rose to defend his friend's honor.

"Yeah. You know what I mean." Larry said with a lecherous look on his face.

"That's my friend your talking about." Xander said with visible anger in his eyes.

"Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?" Larry said in a challenging manner that made it clear that he wasn't concerned in the least about what the Zeppo could do to him.

"I'm going to do what any man would do about it." , Xander replied as he grabbed the jock by his shirt while realizing the difference in size between the two of them, "Something damn manly."

Larry laughed at this pitiful threat and before Xander could come up with something better the football player knocked his hands away and grabs him with his right hand. Pulling back the other hand in preparation for throwing a punch Xander waits for the inevitable pain and misery that was about to be visited upon him only to find it taking a little longer than it should. Then all at once Larry's hand was gone from his shirt and he saw Buffy twist the jock's punching arm behind his back and then slam him into the vending machine.

"Get gone." Buffy said leaving no doubt as to what would happen should he stay here any longer.

Pulling him off the vending machine she then shoved him in the direction of the hallways before reaching down and picking up the can of pop that had come out of the soda machine.

"Ooo, diet!" She said in obvious happiness at her good fortune.

"Do you know what you just did?" Xander asked in annoyance and a little anger at the damage his friend had just done.

"Saved a dollar?" Buffy replied apparently completely oblivious as to what she had just done to him.

"No, but Larry was about to pummel me!" Xander declared with his anger rising just a bit more.

"Oh that? Forget about it!" Buffy said as she went back to the table where Willow was waiting.

"Oh I'll forget about it." , Xander said with a significant amount of anger, "In maybe fifteen, twenty years when my rep as a sissy man runs out!"

Turning to face him Buffy asks "Xander, don't you think that you're …"

"A black eye heals, Buffy, but cowardice has an unlimited shelf life. Oh thanks! Thanks a lot for **your** help!" Xander declares before grabbing his book bag and heading off somewhere before he said something he'd regret later.

The Streets of Sunnydale, Three Blocks From "Ethan's" 

_ I hope I can patch things together with Buffy._ Xander thought as he walked towards the costume shop where they had agreed to meet to choose their costumes.

He had bumped into the Slayer during the history class they shared together and while he had still been mad when the lesson had been ended he had agreed to meet them to pick out costumes for Halloween. They had lucked out in that all those who had 'volunteered' for the chaperoning job were allowed to leave early in order to get prepared for four p.m. It was now two o' clock and he knew that Snyder expected them to be at the school at four sharp in order to pick up their group of brats. Fortunately he was just planning on picking up a toy gun to go with the army fatigues he had bought from an army surplus store. Depending on how long Buffy and Willow took finding their own costumes he should have time to rush home and get ready. Looking down the street he saw that Buffy and Willow were already there and so he tried to scrounge up the will power to swallow his remaining anger and make up with the Slayer. After all they were friends and she had saved his life a number of times since she came to Sunnydale so the least he could do was forgive her for damaging his rep among the men of Sunnydale High School. After all it wasn't like his reputation among his male classmates was great to begin with and the only reason it had improved recently was because he was hanging with Buffy. After all just about everyone would think 'if a babe like Buffy is hanging with Xander he must have something going for him' when they saw them together.

_Not that it has helped my prospects for a date any but it's better than nothing. _Xander thought to himself as his friends finally noticed him.

"Hey Xander! Ready to go look for something only moderately embarrassing?" Buffy asked seemingly eager to get into the store and start looking.

"Sure! Though I draw the line at lederhosen." , Xander said in his usual carefree tone of voice, "They make my calves look fat."

This lightened the mood and with nothing more to be said they entered the store. When they saw the vast selection of costumes hung around the room and placed on mannequins they knew that they would have no trouble finding what they were looking for. Deciding to split up and look around a bit first Xander went off to the right while Willow continued straight ahead and Buffy took the left side of the store. It was true that he had already he had already decided on what he was going to get, a toy gun, but that didn't mean that he couldn't window shop a bit. After all there really was a great selection of costumes to choose from and judging by the detail put into each of them whoever owned this place took his work very seriously. After all most costume places would just buy the most popular costumes as well as the cheapest so they made more than they spent. After all while most managers of stores said they wanted to provide a service to the people and help them out they were definitely interested profit. If they had to choose between pleasing the people and profit they more often than not chose profit as it would keep them in business and fill their wallet. He didn't like the sort of people that were more concerned with profit than people but it was one of the harsh realities of the world.

He had just finished looking over a Darth Vader outfit that had everything from the helmet to the chest plate that even had lights that blinked in the right order when a costume caught his eye that made all other costume choices seem trivial. Even his earlier choice of a simple toy gun didn't seem all that interesting to him now but for the life of him he couldn't explain this sudden shift in preference. After all from what he could see it wasn't from any TV show or Movie that he knew of and seemed pretty generic in appearance with nothing to say it belonged to a specific character. It was kinda like those storm trooper outfits from Star Wars where one looked just like another and no matter how good the actor was who wore it he just couldn't separate himself from the crowd. It looked to be some kind of ninja outfit from the way the strips of white cloth were wrapped around both the shins and a mask that covered everything from the shoulders to just under the eyes. Aside from that the outfit was rather generic in the form of dark blue pants, shirt, boots and finger less gloves. The only thing that contrasted with the blue clothes was a combat green vest with multiple pockets and compartments for storing things on it. However the one thing that really caused an itch in the back of his mind was the headband on the mannequin's head. It was of a lighter blue material than the shirt and pants but the difference to the rest of the outfit wasn't what was bothering him. Instead it was the niggling fact that his mind seemed to be certain that there should be something sown into the headband. It was almost as if he had seen something similar in the past, something important, and the details were playing keep-away with his conscious mind.

_Oh well I'm sure it will come to me eventually._ , Xander thought as he continued to examine the outfit until he reached the price tag, _Yikes! There's no way I can afford that! I guess it's the toy gun for me after all. _

"Is there something I can help you with young man?" came a British voice from behind the Zeppo.

Jumping almost a complete foot off of the ground Xander turned around and said "Don't **do** that!"

"Sorry. Now as I said is there anything I can help you with?" the Brit said with a smile on his face that mirrored the smiles on every shyster and con artist in the world.

"Not unless your willing to take twenty bucks off of this outfit." Xander said almost jokingly pointing at the ninja outfit that had so fascinated him.

"Done." The man from Great Britain said without losing his smile.

"What?" Xander exclaimed as it seemed to go against the grain for someone looking to make a profit to take off more than half the asking price for a costume.

"I know it's not exactly good business profit wise to rent out a costume at such a low price but what I propose is more of a trade." , the Brit said sounding all reasonable and honest, "I will take the proposed amount off if you make sure to tell everyone where you acquired your costume. After all word of mouth has always been the best form of advertisement."

Xander took a moment to think about this because there were several things about the man that told Xander he was not to be trusted. For one thing, while he believed that word of mouth was good business, it was a bit much to take off more than fifty percent of the cost off given how new this store was. Add to that the suspicious smile and the fact that the man seemed a little too eager to unload this costume on someone and the Zeppo couldn't help but wonder if he was being set up for something. Still he did want the costume and he couldn't see any sort of symbols on the outfit that screamed 'I am part of a spell to turn you into something icky' so might as well count his blessings and chance it.

"Then bag it my good man, I'll take it!" Xander said in his best snooty British voice.

The man seemed to get slightly peeved at the joke but maintained his cheerful demeanor just the same.

"Very well. It'll take me about ten minutes or so to get everything ready for you." , the Brit said as he knelt down to remove the fasteners that kept the mannequin upright, "Why don't you go and see what your two lady friends have found?"

"'Lady friends'?" Xander asked with an interested look.

"Yes the petite blonde and the bookish redhead. I saw you all come in earlier and thought that I would help you find your chosen costume first." The Brit answered never losing his smile while he talked.

Xander nodded as that made sense and said "Sure. See you in ten then."

"Well this should make things a little more interesting tonight." Ethan Rayne said as he disrobed the mannequin and putting the items into the box to his right.

He had been unsure of whether or not to put this genuine ninja uniform from the hidden Leaf village of the land of fire. After all there were precious few people who knew that any of the hidden villages existed to begin with much less the differences between the various villages. The members of the various villages were very secretive about their existence and even more obsessed about keeping knowledge about their customs and techniques a secret. It made sense since a ninja's job was to deceive, misdirect and catch their enemies unaware before delivering the final stroke. They couldn't really do that if their enemies knew everything about them so the key phrase for most of these villages was 'secrecy at any cost'. Fortunately though he had come across an exiled ninja from the hidden Leaf village during a trip abroad looking for costumes and managed to 'relieve' him of his uniform. While he was fairly certain that the man had been drunk out of his gourd when he had sidled up to the bar Ethan had taken the precaution of booking a flight out of the country the day after. While he did not believe that the ninja would hunt him down over the matter of a uniform one could never tell with these exiles. After all they were all exiled for a reason and usually that involved being a tad too bloodthirsty for their comrades.

_Well in any case I made sure to remove any personalized items in this outfit so it is unlikely that any aspects of the exile will transfer to the boy. _, Ethan said as he finished the costume by slipping a few kunai, shuriken and throwing needles, _Normally I would welcome the sight of such blood and mayhem in one of my schemes but I cannot afford to take the chance that a memory of me would be transferred as well._

In any case with the last ninja accessory in place and the box taped shut as well as placed in a bag Ethan Rayne was ready to give the costume to the lad who had asked for it. Picturing the boy as he would likely look in the outfit the chaos mage was momentarily struck by how the uniform seemed to suit him. Almost as though he had been meant to wear one all along. He shook his head at the utter nonsense of the idea he left the back room into the store proper.

_I wish that the manager would hurry up._ , Xander thought as he listen to Buffy continued to gush over a frilly dress she had been hanging around, _I don't know how much more 'ooo it's so pretty' I can take!_

He had known the instant he had seen his blonde buddy getting all starry eyed over the eighteenth century dress that she wanted to wear it for Angel. After all who else would want to wear an outfit like that with today's pop culture icons and Halloween costume choices? He preferred seeing women in spandex or at least something a bit tougher looking than this. After all while he was not immune to the appeal of saving a damsel in distress he also didn't want a complete airhead piece of arm candy to deal with. After all he had seen enough of those at the Bronze hanging all over their boyfriends with an empty look on their faces or ordering them around like spoiled brats. No way in **hell** did he want that kind of hassle! He'd almost rather join a monastery and take a vow of silence then have to put up with a dumb or bitchy girlfriend no matter how hot they looked. It was one of the reasons he had become attracted to Buffy after learning she was the Slayer that first day of school. To him she was a comic book heroine come to life complete with super powers and the ability to make the bad guys turn and run for their lives. She was also a person though with a personality that made you see that she was still human despite all she had seen, done and could do. Her only flaw of course was her current choice in boyfriends.

_Okay! I can see how some people might be attracted to the whole 'mysterious stranger' bit along with the 'disappearing without a sound' schtick but still!_ , Xander thought as he tried to keep his snappy cracks to himself, _The guy is a **vampire** for pete's sake! He drinks blood and is easily two hundred years older than her!_

When you added to that the fact that Xander suspected the vamp was a coward at heart and it irritated him to no end to see the girl of his dreams swoon at the sight of the corpse. Still for the sake of their friendship and the Scooby gang he would hold his peace the best he could and keep the 'deadboy' comments to a minimum. Still even his restraint had its limits and Buffy was sorely beginning to push what he could endure and still remain pleasant. Fortunately hearing the sound of someone on the approach he turned and sighed in relief as the manager approached with a box in a bag that had the store name on the side. The Zeppo hoped to make a quick exit but knew that wasn't going to happen when the man caught sight of the Slayer ogling the dress. It looked like the only chance he had was to say that his costume was going to take awhile to put on and he wanted to get started as soon as possible.

"Here you are my boy! One costume ready for immediate use." , The Brit said as he handed the bag to Xander before turning to Buffy, "Oh! Here, my dear, let me get that for you."

Xander watched as the man unzipped the dress from it's display dummy and hold it up against the Slayer in front of a mirror. This unfortunately only cause young Miss Summers' love of the oldies dress to grow and Xander knew she would be talking about nothing but Angel and how he would like it for the rest of the day.

"Oh, I-its .." Buffy said as she was momentarily overwhelmed by the transformation in her appearance when the dress was added.

"Magnificent. Yes, I know." , the Brit said as he too took in her reflection, "My. Meet the hidden princess. I think we found a match. Don't you?"

"Oh, uh, I-I'm sorry. There's no way I could ever afford this." Buffy said as reality set in and she realized the limits of her savings account.

"Oh nonsense! I just made a deal with your boyfriend here and I feel quite moved to come up with a similar arrangement for you." The Brit said drawing the wrong conclusion from the available facts.

For a moment the Zeppo allowed himself to be fooled by the mistake but when Buffy quickly spoke up saying that she wasn't his boyfriend he just sighed and told his two girls that he was heading home to get ready. With that said he handed over what money he had to the manager and left the store without saying another word despite the baffled stares of his friends behind him.

The Harris Household, Xander's Room 

_ Not too bad if I do say so myself!_ Xander thought to himself as he examined himself in the mirror.

It had taken him a little longer than he had thought to get the costume on right, especially the white strips of cloth around his shins, but now everything was perfect. He had been a little surprised when fitting the various weapons into the pockets on the vest that they were kinda sharp. Not so sharp that he had to worry about cutting himself on them but definitely sharp enough that they could do some damage if thrown properly. Not that he was planning on actually using them or anything but it was still nice to know that he wouldn't chop off his own fingers by accident. All that was left was to put that headband on but as he lifted it up to put it on he was suddenly hit with the reason why he had been dealing with a niggling feeling at the back of his mind ever since the shop. It was a vague memory but he was fairly certain he had seen something almost identical to the headband in some of his mother's personal things.

He had been about four when he had seen it for the first time. He had been exploring his parents' room and of course when he saw a metal box in the back of the closet he had been compelled to open it. He had found a variety of things inside that hadn't made sense to him at that age but the one thing that had caught his attention was the headband with the metal plate that was positioned in the center of the box. The metal plate was fairly ordinary in appearance except it had this weird design in the center that kinda looked like a bird with a very small beak. At the present he was fairly certain it wasn't a bird symbol but that is what his mind had come up with when he was four. His child like mind had of course also seen numerous cartoons and comic books where a powerful hero had been wearing a headband so he had not hesitated to try it on. He had almost made it out the door to show it to Jesse and Willow when his mother had caught him and **boy** had she been mad. She had all but ripped it off his head and gave his such a tongue lashing about snooping where he wasn't permitted and what would happen if he did it again that he had waited a whole six months before looking for the item again.

He hadn't managed to find it and even though he kept at it for about three years until guys with headbands ceased being cool and guys with high tech guns were the in thing. Thus as time went by he had all but forgotten about what he had found in the metal box in the back of the closet until today. Now looking at the almost identical plate-less headband he had gotten from the store and after seeing the symbol on the back of the vest he couldn't help but be interested in finding that personal possession of his mother's. It would go perfectly with this outfit and even a academic underachiever like him could accept the possibility of there being a connection between his mother's headband and this outfit. Still he wasn't about waste time trying to figure it out when he could just swing by the library and Giles after returning with the kids. It could be nothing more than his mother had been going through a martial arts phase in her younger years and gotten it at one of those chain dojo set ups across the country. Still you would think that if she was involved enough to get a headband from a dojo then wouldn't there be an outfit to go with it. In any case he had decided from the moment he had remembered the item that he was going to 'borrow' it for the night.

Fortunately his mother wasn't going to be back until quarter to five. That left him plenty of time to find the headband and get out without her being the wiser. The one thing he had to figure out though was where she had put it after all these years. He remembered believing during his earlier search for the item that his mother periodically relocated the item for the expressed purpose of keeping it from him. However since it had been years since he had last actively looked for it so his mother would have stopped it had no longer been necessary. That being the case it was probably safe to say she had ceased using some of the more out of the way hiding spots. In fact, in a flash of insight, he came to see that it was quite possible that she had returned the item to its original storage spot. After all it was obvious that there were strong emotions tied to the item given her initial reaction. This meant that once the threat he represented ended she would no longer go to such great lengths to hide it. It would thus be placed somewhere where she could look at it anytime she wanted without letting anyone else know it existed.

Walking into his parents' room he went to the closet and once he had cleared out some of the standard non-suspicious items until he came upon the metal box he remembered. Unfortunately while his mother may have stopped believing that he was still looking for the headband she apparently wasn't stupid as the box now had an impressive looking lock on it. Nothing that a pair of bolt cutters couldn't get past but then his mother would know he had gone looking where he shouldn't. For a moment he considered giving up but then an idea hit him and he took out one of the sharp throwing needles that had come with the costume. Now he was by no means an expert at picking locks or anything but there had been a few times coming home from the Bronze when he had been locked out of the house. He could try and take a stab at picking the lock but he wouldn't be able to make too many attempts before he would have to beat feet to Buffy's house.

_Ah well! Might as well give it a shot._ , Xander thought as he took out one of the needles and began to fiddle with the lock, _After all this will look much better on me than that fake one from the costume shop._

He knew that most locks operated by a series of notches that fit with a specific key and would only open if the key used fit perfectly. However like most locks that requirement could be circumvented with the right tools and a little patience. For the next twenty minutes he used every trick he knew and just when he was about to give up there was a clicking sound and the lock popped open in his hands. Removing it quickly he braced himself while gripping the lid of the box hoping beyond hope that he hadn't just wasted twenty minutes on nothing. Opening up the box he was thrilled to find that his mother had indeed returned the headband back to its original resting place amidst various other personal items. Picking it up he wasted no time in putting it on. He made sure that the metal plate with the weird symbol was position exactly in the middle and once he was sure that it was secure he pulled the elastic mask up from his neck until it covered his face up to the eyes. Now all that remained visible of his face were his eyes and all that remained of his head was the mess of black hair above the headband. After closing the box and putting the lock back on he put everything back into the closet where it had originally been and left the room. Looking at the clock in the hallway he saw that he was running short on time and needed to really move it if he wanted to make it to Buffy's in time to walk with them to the school.

_With a little luck I'll be able to wow them with this outfit and maybe make me more of a contender for Buff's love._ Xander thought as he walked out the door and headed in the direction of the Summers household.

1630 Revello Drive, 3:30p.m 

When Buffy opened the door Xander immediately slipped into ninja mode but before he could say anything he took in her costume and quickly rewrote his opening line.

"Ninja Harris reporting as ordered Buffy-sama." Xander said going down to one knee and looking at the ground.

He could tell that the Slayer was dumbfounded by his actions and let the silence hang for a few moments before standing up and pulling down his mask to reveal his familiar lopsided Xander grin. This thankfully helped Buffy recover from her confusion and she giggled at his little act while examining his outfit.

"Thank you for coming kind sir." Buffy said with a curtsey and a gallant half bow.

"No prob' Buff and if I do say so myself your lookin' much better than I thought you would in that outfit." Xander said refusing to completely approve of the dress as it would only drive her further towards deadboy.

"Thanks Xand! Wait until you see … " , Buffy said before turning to look at the top of the stairs in anticipation of something before her expectancy turned to disappointment, "… Casper."

"Hi." Willow said from beneath the ghost costume at the top of the stairs.

Xander sighed as his bestest bud since kinder garden did what she did just about every year since the whole Wonder Woman incident at the age of eight. It had been a Halloween of trauma when the redhead had decided to go out as her favorite superhero and had spent a month working on a homemade costume. She had been so proud of sewing in those silver stars into her blue one-piece bathing suit and putting a golden triple double-u on one of her red tank tops. She had been all but bouncing down the street with her treat bag in her had and had actually gotten several compliments. That however had ended when Larry's older brother Gary and his friends had come in their 'street gang' costumes and started making fun of Willow's outfit. To make a long story short by the time that it was all over Willow's candy was stolen and she cried for an hour straight despite his efforts to cheer her up. Ever since then she had never worn anything special that would let her stand out in the crowd or draw undue attention to herself. That meant going as a generic ghost of which there were dozens walking around every Halloween making it impossible to pick out one specific one to make fun of. He had made several attempts in the past to coax her into giving something else a chance but she hadn't budged an inch. In the end he had simply accepted her choice and left her to come out of her shell on her own without any pressure. Judging from Buffy's expression she had expected Willow to come down wearing something else but the learned redhead had shrunk back into her protective shell.

Seeing that Willow was getting nervous at his lack of response he said "Hey Will! That's a fine looking 'Boo' you got there!"

"Thanks! You look pretty cool too!" , Willow said with a smile before a look of confusion came over her face, "What exactly are you?"

"A ninja believe it or not. I know it isn't exactly a black outfit with a sword but that's what I think it is." , Xander said as he took out one of the kunai, "I even got a small arsenal of ninja weapons to go with the costume."

"Cool!" Buffy said taking the kunai from his hand and twirling it around a little bit in her hand.

"That l-looks a little sharp Xander. Are you sure it's safe?" Willow asked as she eyed the not dulled edges of the kunai.

"Don't worry Wills. While they aren't exactly safe as a butter knife I'll be sure to be careful with them." , Xander said as he rolled up his right sleeve to look at his watch, "We better hurry and get down to the school. Don't want Snyder to decide we need extra volunteer work."

Sunnydale High School, 4:00p.m Sharp 

Once they had gotten to the school they had been split up and taken to their individual group of kids. Fortunately for Xander it seemed he had managed to get a fairly well behaved group with traditional vampire, witch and ghost outfits. There was one kid dressed as Dracula though that was serious beginning to tread on his last nerve and if the boy wasn't careful he was going to leave him where some real vamps could find him. Two of the kids had gone off to use the bathroom before they left so Xander was more or less standing about waiting when he felt a familiar hand clamp down on his shoulder. Turning with dread he found his discomfort justified when he saw that the arm was attached to a pirate costume wearing Larry who looked like he had payback on his mind.

"Where's your bodyguard Harris? Curling her hair?" Larry asked mockingly.

Before Xander can reply though Larry jumped at him causing him to involuntarily flinch which of course got a laugh out of the jock before the football player walked away. For a minute the Zeppo considered using one of the throwing needles he had to make Larry's butt into a pin cushion but decided against it. Both because he would probably miss and he'd need a weapon bigger than what he had on him to hold the cave man off when he came looking for payback. Besides he was much too cool to let the dimwitted tactics of the cerebrally challenged bother him for very long. Besides there were more important things to focus on like candy and after that more candy. Looking back to his group kids he saw that the two who had gone to the bathroom had come back and were waiting expectantly to leave and begin trick or treating. Deciding to make it more fun and interesting he decided to make this into a pseudo-ninja mission and quickly got into character.

"Alright my friends here is the mission we have been hired to complete by our respective sweet teeth." , Xander said in an official tone of voice, "Now here are the rules you must follow for a successful mission. To sleaze extra candy tears are the key. They'll normally get the adults to fork over extra candy to make you feel better. You can also try the 'you missed me' routine but its risky outside of old people. Lastly the only candy you should go for is chocolate and nothing else. Understood?"

All of the kids nodded apparently enjoying the act he was putting on for them.

"All right then my fellow ninja. Let's move out!" Xander said and with a smooth line up he and his party marched out of the school with sweets on their mind.

The Streets of Sunnydale, Quarter to Six 

"Nicely done my friends. So far your candy thieving skills are proving to be among the best I've seen in a long time." , Xander said as he finished examining his group's latest donation from the MacDonald home, "Now I think we have time to hit one more house before I have to get you kids back to the school. Let's go!"

As Xander began to lead the kids to the last house on their route something suddenly seemed to feel wrong, kinda like the feeling that someone is watching you, but as he began to look around to locate the source his entire being was overcome. It was a sensation that affected him physically as he felt his muscles seem to grow and harden, mentally as information and ideas seemed to come from nowhere and spiritually as a wellspring of energy began to flow through him. It caused misfires and dizziness to force him to his knees and just as his entire world began to go black there came another sensation that he only gained a vague grasp of before everything went blank.

It was a sensation of completeness.

_ Ohhh! That is the last time that I spar with Hokage-sama!_ The Jounin thought to himself as he rose to his feet and began to examine his surroundings.

What he saw when he looked around was definitely **not** the Hidden Leaf Village of Kohona based on the design of the houses and the machines that were scattered up and down the street. Looking at some of the letters on stickers pasted on the back of some of the machines he doubted he was even in the same region as his home village. He searched through his memory trying to place a geographical location with what he could see around him and finally hit upon a possibility. While it was true that only on a very few rare instances ninjas from any of the hidden villages were hired out to parties that lived beyond the established boards it was occasionally done. If he recalled the information properly the script used here meant that this was either someplace in Europe or in the Americas. While Europe was not quite bad jobs offered in the Americas were usually declined on the basis that employers there could not be entirely trusted. It was believed by the rulers of Konoha that these continents while not devoid of honor possessed too many unsavory elements in their society to risk a mission of any kind. This sentiment had only increased over the years as the United States of America in particular had shown that they would do anything to give themselves a military advantage. As such they would most certainly cause them to desire the various jutsus and other techniques that might prove useful.

With this in mind the Jounin tried to recall how he had come to be here or rather than to remember anything after his last sparring session with Hokage-sama. Nothing came to mind however but that was only the tip of the ice burg as similar holes in his recollection were discovered when he tried to remember his life in Konoha. He knew basic things like various important members of the village and the locations of several key places in the village but nothing personal. He could not recall who his parents were nor who his teammates were when he was a Genin much less what his own name was. It was bizarre for he could not recall a jutsu or device that could so selectively remove memories from a person. Memories could be made visible with genjutsus and with the feared Sharingan bloodline limit ability a person could be made to relive a particularly horrendous memory but no jutsu could completely remove a memory. It was a mystery indeed but it was also one that could wait until the situation here was resolved and he could ponder the matter in private.

Using his chakra he leapt to the rooftop of the tallest house he could find and began to examine the situation with a thorough eye. From what he could tell there was an odd mixture of humans and demons of some kind running with chaos being the theme of the night. Whatever had happened had started during a festival of some kind judging by what some of the humans were wearing and had caught them sorely unprepared. The demons were many but there were quite a few he could not identify and who he sensed were 'abnormal' somehow. He could sense the demons' chakra but it was poisoned somehow, as though someone had mixed in a toxin with a perfectly healthy combination of both mental and spiritual energy. It was unlike anything he knew but it was enough to make him regulate himself to non-lethal tactics until he could discern more.

It was after his form of tactics was chosen that he sensed for the first time something that hinted at his native village. He could sense something that felt like a combination of the mind swap ninjutsu and the clone genjutsu as he could sense a form that was not really there heading his way and the form's real body a fair distance behind it. It was an odd combination because the mind swap technique was usually use for surveillance and information gathering purposes only. This was because it left the ninja's true body vulnerable to attack and any damage taken to the body being inhabited would appear on the original body. Normally this meant that when a ninja chose to use this technique he or she made sure that their native body was either well hidden or well protected until the ninjutsu was terminated. However it was theoretically possible that if the ninja placed their mind inside one of their clones they could avoid the hereditary damage between host body and native body as most clones vanished after one solid blow. This however didn't make a whole lot of sense since the clone could easily act on its own without the direction of the native mind along for the ride. Perhaps the person who was using this jutsus didn't want to wait for any information its clone brought back and therefore put their mind in it so that she could receive the information firsthand. Still this was all just theory until he actually confronted this ninja and hopefully when he did he could get some answers. Specifically the answers to the questions to 'Where am I?', 'What is going on?" and 'How did I get here?" with the answers in that order.

Leaping from roof to roof in the direction of the mystery ninja he soon spotted the source but immediately had to wonder just how lax the Kage of her village must be as far as a dress code went. The ninja was a girl about fifteen or sixteen years of age and a little shorter than he was and seemed to be dressed in some rather revealing clothes. She was wearing boots, a short, black leather skirt and a burgundy, long-sleeved, V-necked, midriff-baring top. In short she looked like the kind of woman who hired her body out every night for a small fee. Not that he knew what those sort of women were like aside from occasionally seeing them on a mission or loitering around Kohona. He personally thought that those type of women were nothing but trouble and only made him look bad among the more prestigious women. After all the higher-class women of the village tended to be deeper and more interesting than the prostitutes and could be trusted. The prostitutes would just as soon kill you in your sleep and steal whatever valuables you might have on you at the time as give you a good time. Still he knew of several female ninja who had to go undercover as prostitutes while on missions so maybe that was the case with this young woman. Then again this was all just conjecture so it was time to stop thinking and start doing so with one final leap he left the roof he had been on and landed in front of the female ninja.

"Ahhh!" , the fem exclaimed as she jumped back a couple of steps, "Don't do that! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry." , The Jounin said while keeping his right hand in easy reach of one of his kunai, "I thought you'd be used to people popping up out of nowhere."

"It's still not nice Xander!" Willow said with a cross look on his face.

"Xander? My name is Xander?" The Jounin now apparently known as Xander said as he rolled the name around in his head to judge its validity.

"Duh! Quit joking around. There's something really weird going on here." , the female Ninja said while looking around at the chaos they were smack dab in the middle of, "We have to find Buffy and then get to Giles so we can figure out what's going on!"

"Okay. Before we do that though can you answer one question?" Xander asked as he came to accept that the name she had given was his as it sounded familiar to him.

"Sure." The female ninja said apparently wanting him to hurry up.

"Who are you? Where are we?" Xander asked as he figured he might as well get those two questions answered before they did anything.

For a moment the young woman seemed to think he was joking but then hung a sharp right turn in her mind as she seemed to realize something.

"You don't know who you are do you?" the woman asked rhetorically before saying, "This is **not** good!"

Harris Household, Same Time 

"Hey woman! Get me another beer!" came the intoxicated voice of one Tony Harris from the living room.

Jessica just endured it and did as she had been told as she had long ceased to care how she was treated. She refused to call him her 'husband' as she still believed in her mind that the name husband was reserved for a man who cared for her and would never treat her like Tony did on a regular basis. There was only one man in her memories that came close to being worthy of that but he was a world away and as soon as his face appeared in her minds eye she banished it. Thinking about him brought back a world of hurt that took her half a night to get over and with Tony in his current state it would only make him mad. Walking into the living room she gave him the beer without another word and began to walk away when she felt his hand slap her on her ass. There was only a tingle of an urge to punch him for it was just another thing she had come to accept in the life she now lived. It had been difficult at first and she had to use every ounce of willpower she had not to retaliate. She would have before marrying Anthony. After a few years the urge to retaliate had pretty much been reduced to a whimper along with all other emotions that would have caused things to get violent.

She did it to stay safe, to keep Alex safe, which meant sinking to deeply into the role she had made for herself that not even her sensei would be able to see through it. She had been a good student but that was to be expected given her families standing in the village. Of them all hers had the best reputation for excellence in learning the skills and techniques taught at the school and abroad. She had been no exception but her one failing had turned out to been the thing to lead to her eventual fall and flight from her home. That failing was that she had always let her heart take the lead when deciding what to do with her mind coming into play in a more advisory position. In the incident of her shame she had blatantly ignored the warnings of her mind and let her emotions rule her judgment. Now this, all that made up her life now, was all she had left and while she couldn't claim to be happy about Tony her son made it tolerable. Sometimes when Alex did something good or brave he actually made her forget about her troubles and hope for a better future. This sadly never lasted long as Tony almost always ruined it by doing or saying something filthy or hitting one of them when they didn't respond to him fast enough. Still Alex was a good kid and deserved a good life but minutes before she had sensed something that caused her to worry about whether or not he would get that good life.

She may have neglected her training for the past eighteen years but she was still sensitive to the energies of other living beings and the world around her. About ten minutes or so earlier she had felt a wave of chakra sweep through the area like a tsunami and had left her feeling distinctly unsettled. It had defied all manner of classification she knew of and seemed both out of control and yet moved with a purpose she could not deduce. Whatever it was it had seriously disrupted her chakra and while the disruption did not last for very long she knew that her son would likely feel it as well. Even though he had not be instructed in what chakra was and how it could be used he came from a noble line and so some things would come as naturally as breathing would. While he might simply dismiss it as just another strange occurrence of the Hellmouth there was always a chance he might try and investigate the feeling and learn the truth. While the details of the villages were kept a closely guarded secret the idea of molding together the energies of the mind and body could be found almost anywhere in the world. Many religions and martial arts disciplines were already aware of one or the other so it would not take a real leap in logic to connect the two. She knew that Alex spent a lot of time with the school librarian Rupert Giles and that Mr. Giles was a member of the secretive organization called the Watchers Council. The hidden villages did not have strong lines of communication between themselves and the Council but they did keep tabs on each other. Mostly this was to keep from stepping on each others toes and preventing any unpleasant confrontations.

After all some of the things the people of the villages can do would make them seem downright demonic to the average person and at least a servant of a demon to those who knew how things really existed in the world. This would lead the Council to send the Slayer to confront these supposed threats to humanity and that would lead to some seriously messy situations. While the various warriors of the villages could match or even excel past a Slayer in some areas of combat a Slayer had the subconscious ability to see past their genjutsu techniques. It was not something that they could consciously control like an arm or a leg but rather something similar to a gut feeling or déjà vu. It was intangible but vital in a Slayer's ability to fight the darkness and defeat the demons of the world or at least that was the going theory on why genjutsus failed against her. There had been a few rare cases when several members of certain villages had attempted to learn the truth behind this ability and a few exiles coveted this ability. After all it would be invaluable against their enemies and for certain warriors render them almost unstoppable even for Kages.

In any case Mr. Giles would no doubt be well versed in all such important affairs and might manage to put the pieces of the puzzle together. She could not allow this to happen no matter what she had to do to prevent it from happening. If Alex were to discover his heritage he would be tempted to seek it out or at least make use of possibilities it would open up for him. Neither was acceptable for her as it would lead to news of them both reaching her family back home and that would lead to only one outcome. To the knowledge of the people of her native village she was dead and her firstborn child died with her. If any evidence of the village academy's teachings was discovered they would send Hunter-nins to investigate and it wouldn't take them one week to find her and by proxy Alex. Once they were found neither she nor her son would survive for very long. Her skills as a ninja were all but gone and Alex had never received any instruction at all. Against trained Hunter-nins five minutes was the most she could hope to protect her son before they were both killed and their bodies taken away and stripped of any links to the village. She had seen what was left of a Hunter-nin's quarry and had no wish to have that happen to her or to see it happen to her son.

Still it would be difficult to leave town and dangerous since she had chosen this place because of the dark energies given off by the Hellmouth. It was a place that most ninja avoided because of the numerous demons and it made it almost impossible for people with skills like Hokage-sama to look in on them with a crystal ball. So with a convincing 'death', a place no ninja went and no way of finding them without coming here it had been the perfect hiding place. Now the only other possible location to hide from the Hunter-nins was the mini-Hellmouth in Cleveland. The dark energies there were nowhere near as concentrated as in Sunnydale but it would hopefully still have a bad enough rep and a strong enough disruption factor to keep them safe. Alex would no doubt question why they had to move but hopefully the news that they would be leaving Tony behind would be incentive enough to leave this place behind. She already had the story about how Anthony was getting more violent and had threatened to kill them almost completely worked out. Add to that the fact that she was sure her son knew that the local police were idiots and she wouldn't have to worry about him saying 'tell the police'. The only problem lay with him being forced to leave his friends behind. With Tony's abuse and her apparent lack of a backbone his friends had become an important part of his life. Willow especially was important to him as he saw her as his 'bestest bud in the whole world'. Over time his list of friends had expanded to include Buffy Summers, Rupert Giles, Daniel Osborne and Cordelia Chase. It would hurt him greatly, just as it had when she had been forced to leave her friends behind, but he would make new ones in Cleveland.

However, out of love for her son she would wait until she was sure that he was making progress with his journey of discovery. If he just gave up and forgot about everything within a week she would rest easy and remain here in Sunnydale. However if he began to show a growing interest in learning either about his past or various genjutsus and ninjutsus she would have to follow through with her plan.

_Please Alex! Don't force me to do to you what was done to me!_ Jessica Harris thought as she went upstairs to go to sleep.

Summers Household, Thirty Minutes Later 

_Willow had better be telling the truth about me being hired to protect this twit._ , Xander thought to himself as he kept watch by the window for trouble, _That's all I have to say!_

After finding out the female ninja's name was Willow and that he was in the American state of California the woman had insisted that they go find 'Buffy'. When he had started asking questions she had told him that protecting her was his assignment in this town. When he had asked what ranking this mission had she had said that it had been a B class mission which meant that it was pretty important as well as dangerous. It would also provide a possible explanation for his selective amnesia. Perhaps he had somehow been poisoned or injured somehow and that was what kept him from remembering the details of his life. In any case she seemed sincere enough that he had decided to hold off on any other questions until a more appropriate moment. It hadn't been hard to find this girl as she had been running down the streets screaming and jumping at every little thing that crossed her path. Once he had arrived she had immediately clung to him like a life preserver and didn't let go until they had arrived at this house. This was a good thing for her because if he had been forced to endure another five minutes of her whining and screaming he would have knocked her out and gagged her. After all there was only so much of that chatter a Jounin could take and he thought he was one of the most patient of his class.

Once the twit had been calmed down enough for him to focus on setting up some kind of defense Willow had said that she was going to consult someone named Giles to determine the cause of all the chaos out in the streets. It had been about then that scream ripped through the air from outside the house and it took only a moment for him to find the source. It was another woman of questionable taste in clothing in the form of a cat suit of some kind that didn't leave a lot to the imagination. Coming up behind her was some kind of beast thing that walked on two legs and could have been mistaken for a human with a body hair problem. For a moment he debated whether or not to leave his client here for a moment to help this new innocent or to just sit here and do his job. Deciding he would only get into more trouble with his client if he left he decided just to discourage whatever it was who was chasing the girl and leave it at that. Walking over to the door he opened it up and before Willow could say anything he threw two kunai at the beast thing hitting it in both shoulders. It roared in pain and staggered back a bit before lumbering away in another direction to tend to its wounds. This however also attracted the attention of the person being chased making her run directly at him and before he could say anything she was inside the house leaving him in the doorway.

"Don't ask for permission or anything!" Xander muttered underneath his breath as he closed and relocked the door.

The woman took in the living room and asked "Wait a … What's going on?"

"Okay, your name is Cordelia, you're not a cat, you're in high school, and we're friends. Well, sort of." Willow said trying to get the explanation out as quickly as possible.

"That's nice, Willow. And you went mental when?" Cordelia said in a tone that Xander had heard used numerous times with certain dim genins.

"You know us?" Willow asked with confusion on her face.

"Yeah! Lucky me! What's with the name game?" Cordelia asked obviously wanting someone to be snappy with the answers.

"A lots going on." Willow replied as she was no doubt using most of her brain power to figure out what was going on.

"No kidding. I was just attacked by Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy. Look at my costume! Do you really think that Partytown's gonna give me my deposit back? Not on the likely." Cordelia declared showing the various torn sections of her costume.

Deciding that if he didn't do something quick he was going to wind up having two whining women to deal with he looked around and quickly found the jacket closet. Not bothering to ask anyone for permission he quickly opened it up and grabbed the one jacket that looked the most expensive and good looking. Once he had it he draped it over her shoulder figuring that if she was warm and covered she might tone down the whining to something he could tolerate.

"Thanks." Cordelia said with some surprise at this act of kindness.

"Okay. You guys stay here while I get some help. If something tries to get in, just fight it off." Willow said as she prepared to leave.

"Well, i-it's not our place to fight. Uh, surely some men will protect us." Buffy said sounding like she would faint from fear at the first sudden sound she heard.

"What's that riff?" Cordelia asked looking at the blonde like she was an airhead.

_That's probably not far from the truth._ Xander thought to himself as he recalled that most noble women were dumb, pretty and utterly useless aside from being arm candy.

"I-it's like amnesia, okay? They don't know who they are. Just sit tight." Willow said walked straight towards a wall.

"Who died and made her the boss?" Cordelia asked clearly not liking the fact that someone was giving her orders.

Before anyone could say anything Willow walked through the wall as though she was a ghost and left everyone who remained speechless and slack jawed. Xander recovered first but he was still a bit dumbfounded by what he had just seen as it conflicted with what he had just seen. His original theory was that she was using a combination of the cloning technique and the mind swap technique but that had begun to become suspect by the time they had reached the house. It took a ninja of incredible stamina to be able to maintain any sort of genjutsu or ninjutsu for an extended period of time. Sooner or later most ninja either ended the technique voluntarily or else ran out of the necessary chakra to keep it going. There were a few exceptional ninja who could keep it up for hours but everyone had their limits. With this passing through walls technique he was beginning to think she was not the ninja he had thought she was when he first sensed her. Being able to combine two jutsus was difficult but not impossible for a ninja to do. Combining three was a feat that was almost exclusively the domain of the Kages with only a few exceptional jounin. He himself could only combine two and that left him pretty drained after twenty minutes of maintaining it. Either she was a Kage in secret or there was some other source to her abilities that he knew nothing about.

_Whatever the source I'll have to report it once I get back to Konoha._ Xander thought as he turned back to his client and Cordelia.

Harris Household, Same Time 

_Alex! Where are you?_ Jessica Harris asked herself mentally as the minutes continued to tick by without any sign of her son.

It was almost seven pm and she hadn't heard a thing from her son. Not even a phone call saying that he was staying late at the library to 'study'. She knew that whenever he gave her this excuse she knew it really meant that he was helping the local Slayer with some demon problem or other. She didn't have a problem with this so long as he didn't get directly involved in the fight and didn't try to become a better fighter. He had a good heart but she also knew that the only instruction he had in how to fight was through movies and firsthand combat. He learned either through imitation or making it up on the spur of the moment and so far it seemed to suit him. It made him unpredictable and that was always a good thing. She remembered one cocky chunin who took great pleasure in coming up with entirely original ways of using the various Jutsus in battle. While she had never personally seen him fight she had little doubt that he applied the same way of thinking to fighting as he did with everything else. It didn't stop her from worrying though.

Now though she didn't know where he was or what he was doing and in the wake of that energy wave she had felt earlier each moment each minute he as gone only heightened her uneasiness. The longer he was gone the more she was sure something had happened that would ruin the life she had made for herself here and endanger her son. Going to the phone she considered calling up Willow and Buffy's home to see if he was there and if so order him home. However she only considered it for a moment before concluding that it would be too big a breach of her false identity as a spineless drunken mother. That sort of woman would never bother to check up on her son one way or the other unless it was to scold him for not cleaning the house or getting more beer. That left only leaving the house herself to seek him out and make sure that he was alright but with Tony still awake it would only make things worse for her on her return. Moving to the fridge where the rest of the liquor was she pulled it out and set it on the counter. Once there she pulled out a pot she used for cooking stew or lobster and set it next to the booze. She then emptied the freezer of every ice cube into the pot filling it to the top. After that she placed the beer into the ice and took it into the living room where Anthony was watching his shows.

"Tony I'm going out to grab another six pack or two. Here's what's left from the fridge and I made sure to put some ice with it to keep it cold." She said as she set the ice filled pot next to Tony's chair.

"Get some Jack Daniels while you're there." Tony ordered without allowing his eyes to leave the television screen.

"Yes Tony." Jessica said out of habit before walking out of the living room and out of the house.

Summers Household, Twenty Minutes Later 

_ That's it! I am never taking another assignment in America ever again!_ Xander thought to himself as he tried his best to keep his arms crossed.

As soon as the redhead had left it had taken mere moments for Cordelia and Buffy to start arguing with each other over on inane topic or another. It had started with proper attire for a woman then slipped into class levels before settling on a discussion about who had more money. He knew that a ninja had to be patient and endure uncomfortable conditions in order to do their job but he doubted any ninja could endure this kind of bickering for very long.

Nothing much had happened since Willow had left in terms of things trying to break into the house or civilians screaming to be rescued. It was still chaos outside with crashes and smashes being made by persons or things unknown every few minutes but nothing that was a direct threat to their sanctuary. He had taken the lull in activity to take full stock of what he had at his disposal in terms of weapons and found that all he had were the basics. Three shuriken, two smoke bombs, five kunai, ten needles and a spool of near invisible wire were all he could find in the various pockets. There were no scrolls of any kind nor any exploding tags or needles. Therefore the resources at his disposal were limited and made laying traps around the house. This would reduce him to hand-to-hand combat and seal combinations during battle. Neither was very advisable in a populated area with demons and magicks lurking around every corner.

The whole situation made him uneasy because there were far too many unknown factors to deal with. How many enemies were there? How long was this mission to last? What was the source of the chaos outside? All this he would like to know because if he did he would be a lot more confident about his chances of fulfilling the contract involving the protection of Buffy. If he knew how many enemies he would have to fight he would be able to ration out his resources and know how to use them best. The same could be said if he knew how long he had been asked to protect Buffy and how much longer before it became too late for the ones who want to harm her to do anything. Add to that discovering what was causing the commotion outside he might be able to put an end to it and restore some order to this town. All those answers would definitely make his job easier and far less complicated than it was right now. Somehow though he felt that this was par for the course as far as how his life tended to go.

As he was about to conceive a strategy for dealing with so many unknowns he heard the sound of the back door opening and someone entering the house. Pulling a kunai out of one of his vest's pockets he moved to place himself between whoever was approaching the living room. A few seconds later he saw the intruder and decided to neutralize this potential threat before it had a chance to do anything to do some damage by attacking first. Using his chakra to give him a little more speed than he could achieve on his own he charged the man clothed in black and attacked using the hand-to-hand combat style of Kohona. First a hard punch was dealt to the solar plexus knocking the wind from his lungs and slammed him up against the wall at the same time. Then grabbing one of the man's arms he lifted him off the ground and slammed him flat on his back on the living room floor. Finally, without letting go of the arm he had possession of he slammed his right foot down on the man's throat. Then to put the final lock in place by positioning the kunai over the elbow so if it became clear that he couldn't maintain the advantage he would be able to permanently disable the man's arm.

"No! Wait! He's on our side!" Cordelia said as she moved to grab the arm with the kunai.

"You sure?" Xander asked as he made a more thorough examination of the man.

"Yes! His name's Angel." Cordelia said desperate to convince him that this man wasn't a threat.

He was indecisive for a moment but decided that given the man's dismal combat abilities and lack of resistance to his moves that if it turned out he was an enemy there would be no difficulty in taking him out.

"Fine." Xander said as he let go of the arm and lifted his foot from Angel's throat.

The kunai however he kept in his hand just in case he needed to make one quick deciding move.

"What's going on? I step out hook up with Buffy for a patrol and then all hell breaks loose out there!" , Angel says with more than a little concern about the whole situation before stepping towards Buffy, "Buffy do you know what's going on?"

"Of course I do not know what this horrendous event!" , Buffy replied in perfect noblewoman fashion, "I am a lady of high station. Such matters are a concern for those of lower breeding such as Alexander."

"What?" Angel asked rhetorically as her response only made him more confused.

"It's a long story." Cordelia said as she realized she would have to be the one to explain everything to the supposed 'friendly vampire'

Sunnydale High School, Library, Same Time 

_It is nights like these that I could definitely use more of._ , Giles thought to himself as he brought some new index cards over to the card catalogue, _The one night of the entire year when the dark forces of the world take a night off and allow me a small respite. Nothing can happen to spoil my mood tonight._

Unfortunately the Watcher should have known better than to think something like that in such short proximity to the Hellmouth because just as he reached the catalogue Willow chose that moment to walk through the wall right in front of him. To say he had been surprised would be an understatement as he reflexively let go of the cards in his hand so that he could protect himself. Well maybe not so much dropping the cards as tossing them up in the up in the air and letting them fall where they may. For a moment he was speechless as he waited for the apparition in front of him to do something so he could understand how she came through the wall and if she was indeed Willow.

"Hi." Willow said with one of her trademark grins.

"Uh... ah... huh?" Giles asked completely unable to form a coherent sentence.

"Giles we have big time problems!" , Willow said as she began to pace back and forth in front of him, "Everyone's turned into their costumes somehow!"

"Um .. you mean they .. they became cloth?" Giles asked as he tried to figure out what Willow meant.

"No! I mean that if they were dressed up as an alien they became an alien .. kinda." , Willow said as she realized certain inconsistencies in her example, "Well not totally because they didn't shrink down and have their skin turn gray but you know what I mean."

"Er .. yes. Well I have to admit that there are any number of spells and curses that could have caused this to happen." , Giles said as he regained his professional composure, "However I believe I know where we can begin looking."

Going into the stacks he went to where some of books on the more powerful magicks and paranormal phenomena. It had to be something potent indeed in order to affect so many people all at once. While Willow did state that there were no drastic physical changes such as a drastic increase or decrease in height for them to take on such drastic properties such as those she was exhibiting. While she did not look like any supernatural being she was familiar with who possessed the ability to pass through solid matter it obviously took a significant amount of magic to give her that ability. While it was true that many mages both human and demonic could use the power of the Hellmouth to amplify their own powers it generally required that they be close by. Despite his relishing of a quiet night to himself he was certain he would have sensed if a ceremony of that magnitude were being conducted near the high school. That would seem to indicate that the source of the spell's power came from somewhere or someone else. While this did not narrow the number of possibilities down too much it should be enough to allow them to find a solution before morning.

Laying one of the books open to the correct page in front of Willow he himself opened a special book he had hidden in the stacks to reveal some dusty parchment. It contained some of the more sensitive magicks but rather than placing in some place obvious like a vault of some kind he hid it within a book. Of course he had to find one book that he was fairly certain no one would ever want to check out or even be tempted to skim through but that wasn't too difficult. To stack the odds even further in his favor he placed a charm on the book so that anyone who got to close to it and had a desire to touch it would suddenly feel like they had to use the washroom **bad**. After all if there was one thing that could overwhelm a person's interest it was the call of nature as Americans sometimes called it. Thanks to a talisman he kept on him at all times he was immune to the charm making it easy for him to take the book down and open it. Hopefully it would lead to some kind of answer to this most odd dilemma.

Summers Household, Twenty Minutes Later 

It had been interesting listening to Cordelia explain to Angel what was going on given her unique grasp on the English language but he had only been partially paying attention. It was safe to say that only a third of his attention was focused on listening while another third was used to monitor the surroundings for more intruders and the final third was being used to try and figure this newcomer out. He looked like he was human but it hadn't taken him long after letting him go to detect that there was no body heat or heartbeat coming from this being. He had learned the first when he had gripped Angel's arm while he was on the floor immobilized. The latter he had deduced by looking at the major arteries and places where a person's heartbeat could be felt. There had been no pulsing of any kind to indicate that there was a beating heart in the man's chest. Which meant that either he wasn't human or his spirit was somehow maintaining his body on its own. That was why he was trying to use his ability to sense chakra to see if he could sense the nature of the energy that was animating this apparently dead body. What he was finding out was not encouraging but it didn't automatically put him in the bad guy camp either.

_It's like a being filled with dark energy suddenly had that energy diluted with an influx of human mental and spiritual energy._ Xander thought to himself while keeping his face carefully blank.

It was definitely not something you saw everyday but it was enough to keep him from getting rid of Angel right away despite Cordelia's claim that he was a good guy. In a way what he was feeling from Angel was similar to what he felt from some of the monsters he had seen outside. The only difference was that the combination of energy was the exact opposite. Instead of dark energy being diluted by normal human energy the energy of a normal person had been contaminated by some dark energy. What was even worse though was that he could sense some of that dark taint in himself although it was not quite as pervasive. Add to that his own considerable control over his own energy and he was able to keep the darkness from influencing him in any way. Still while he could not sense the energy having any negative effect on him it would be absurd to think that he was completely free of its taint. He could only hope that when it asserted itself and made its intentions known that he would be able to remain himself.

Without warning the lights went out all through the house enshrouding everything in darkness and he immediately went on edge. Both he and Angel were immediately on the defensive waiting to see what this unexpected turn of events meant for them and the two young ladies. From Cordelia's comment of disgust though Buffy was reverting to type by clinging to the closest person available whenever she was afraid. It was possible that the town was simply experiencing a power outage as a result of the chaos outside but it was also possible that someone cut the power to this specific house as a prelude to an attack. Moving over to the window with his kunai at the ready he took a look outside to survey the surrounding houses while not making himself a target in the process. From what he could see his latter theory of an impending attack was the right one as he could see that several of the other houses on the block still had power.

"They'll be making their way in soon." , Xander said as he began to map out a plan in his head, "Angel you and Buffy check in on the kitchen and make sure the door is locked and the windows have remained unchanged. Cordelia and I will go upstairs and make sure no one gets in via the second floor."

"But you were hired to protect me were you not! You cannot leave with this brigand!" Buffy exclaimed as she let go of Cordelia and made to move towards him.

Angel looked less than pleased with the preference Buffy was showing him but that was unimportant.

"Buffy-sama, if there is someone about to attack this house then it is likely they will approach from the area of least difficulty for them and our best chance of escape." , Xander said trying to sound convincing even though he was making it up, "That means they will most likely attack from the front of the house and merely place watchmen in the back. While I don't know how good this Angel guy is he can probably handle the guards and help you escape unharmed."

That seemed to pacify her fear and she swiftly went to Angel's side clinging to him like he was the most precious thing she had. This dispelled the man's earlier resentment of him but hopefully he wouldn't let it go to his head because a cocky warrior often became a dead one. Heading up the stairs he kept his senses on high listening for the slightest suspicious sound or sudden movement in the darkness. Thankfully though ninjas of all ranks were trained to work well in the darkness so whoever was planning to use the darkness to his or her advantage. The only downside was that the hallways in this house were so narrow that it would be almost impossible to dodge a serious attack. Even with the replacement technique it would only work so many times until it worked against him in this narrow space. After all it was only a matter of time until the logs or various objects wound up simply blocking the hallway removing a possible way out. In other words if they found any intruders up here he would have to take them down hard and fast.

Suddenly a scream cut through the night and Xander immediately matched it to his client Buffy. Cursing himself for choosing the wrong point of entry for the enemy he leapt temporarily to the ceiling using his chakra to adhere to it like a spider before crawling clear of Cordelia and dropping to the ground. He wasted no time heading to the kitchen only to find the back door open and Angel on the floor covered in dust.

"What happened?" Xander demanded while sticking his head out the door to see if he could catch a glimpse of Buffy as he was certain she had left the house.

"It was a vampire. I managed to dust him but Buffy got scared and ran off." Angel said as he stood up and brushed some of the dust off of his clothes.

"Damn it! Come on! We gotta find here before something happens otherwise I'll never hear the end of it back in Konoha!" Xander said as he charged out the door tracking the blonde by the signs of her passing that she left behind.

He did not notice the odd looks both Cordelia and Angel were giving him.

"Where's Konoha?" Cordelia asked with both frustration and confusion.

Sunnydale High School, Library 

"I don't even know what I'm looking for. Plus I can't turn the page." Willow said in frustration as she stared down at the same page she had been looking at for the last five minutes.

"Well, alright, l-let's, let's, let's review." , Giles said as he set down the parchments he had been reading, "Um, so everybody became, uh, whatever they were masquerading as?"

"Right. Xander was a ninja and Buffy was an eighteenth century noble woman." Willow said nodding as she confirmed what the Watcher had said.

Giles seemed to pause a moment at the mention of Xander being a ninja but then asked "A-and, uh, your, your costume?"

"I'm a ghost." Replied Willow thinking nothing of how she must look to Giles.

"Yes. Um... w, uh, uh, uh, the ghost of what, exactly?" Giles asked trying not to look too hard at what she was wearing.

Willow noticed this and immediately covered her exposed mid-riff before saying " Well, this is nothing. You should see what Cordelia was wearing. A-a, a unitard with cat things, like ears and stuff."

"Good heavens. Uh, sh-sh-she became an actual feline?" Giles asked in surprise at the thought of the rude young lady being turned into a breed of cat.

"No! She was the same old Cordelia. Just in a cat costume." Willow replied as if baffled that the Watcher would come to such a conclusion.

"She didn't change?" Giles asked with some interest as well as hope for clarification.

"No. Hold on... Partytown! She told us she got her outfit from Partytown!" Willow said as she discovered a vital clue.

"A-a-and everyone who changed, they, they, they, they acquired their costumes where?" Giles asked knowing that the key to ending the spell would be found there.

"We all got ours at a new place. Ethan's." Willow replied efficiently.

With that one name Giles knew in his heart who was responsibly for the chaos and cruelty that had been born this night. His past was coming back to haunt him and if he did not quickly all would know of his shameful past.

So deep in his own past was Giles and so disturbed at the look on her mentor's face that neither Willow nor the Watcher noticed that there was another who heard the location of the night's trouble. The listener did not give them a chance to spot her as she immediately left for the store where the chaos of this night was born to bring it to an end. Jessica Harris knew that she had to act quickly for if she had overheard Willow right every moment that went by increased the chance of her own past being discovered.

The Streets of Sunnydale, Thirty Minutes Later 

"Are you sure she came this way?" Xander asked as he continued to race through the streets of this town looking for the person he was supposed to protect.

"No." Angel said as he paused in place for a moment to sniff the air.

"Don't worry! She'll be okay." , Cordelia said firmly as she tried her best to keep up with the men, "She is the Slayer after all."

"**Buffy** would be okay. Whoever she is now, she's helpless. C'mon!" Angel said as he seemed to catch a smell on the evening breeze.

_Assuming Cordelia was right about everyone turning into their costumes for the night._ Xander thought to himself as he followed a man he was beginning to become suspicious of again.

He had heard the catwoman's explanation of the night back at the house but had found it a little hard to believe. After all he had heard of jutsus that could alter the body and toy with the mind but nothing that could bring about such a drastic change in people. The transformation jutsu allowed a ninja to assume the appearance but the mind was a part of a person that at best a ninja could manipulate the mind or trick it. It could not bestow new memories or alter a person's personality so completely. However he would have to admit that the teachings of Konoha could not explain everything and it would explain how he himself possessed a similar taint as the others who had been changed. Still if he wasn't really a ninja from the hidden leaf village of Konoha then who was he really. The name Xander was obviously accurate but what about all the rest of it. Was he really a Jounin from the hidden Leaf Village of Kohona? Did he really live through the experiences he remembered? It was a scary thought that everything he thought he knew about himself was a lie. It was pointless though to dwell on something he could not change or affect. Better to remain focused on the mission and worry about the rest later.

_I just hope that Buffy hasn't managed to get herself in trouble already._ , Xander thought as the three of them headed down an alleyway, _Noblewomen are notoriously hopeless when it comes to defending themselves._

A Rooftop Nearby, Same Time 

_How could I have let this happen! _Jessica thought with much grief as she watched her son run away from her position in a uniform she thought she would never see again.

After her first stop at the school library there had been a growing feeling of dread and unease in the pit of her stomach. She had heard Willow's story about how a spell had been cast transforming everyone into their costumes. That had been worrisome enough given what most people chose for Halloween costumes but when she had heard that Xander had chosen to dress up as a ninja her blood had turned to ice. Her mind clung to the hope that her son had chosen to dress up as one of those movie ninja or some poor excuse for one from a comic book. It had been a source of some amusement in the village of her birth to see how the rest of the world viewed ninjas and the variations foreigners came up with. Some were downright ridiculous! It was an insult by some to be compared with those misshapen creations and she had used some as such herself. Still when she had gone to the Summers home to find her son she had come upon signs of a struggle in the kitchen with the back door left wide open. With no one in the house she had begun to track her son down almost immediately with the few skills she remembered from the academy. It had taken her much longer than it should have to finally find her firstborn son but when she had the shock she received almost caused her to faint.

Somehow the owner of the costume store 'Ethan's' had actually managed to get his hands on a genuine uniform from one of the hidden villages. What was worse was that it was from **her** village in particular judging from the symbol on the back of the flak jacket. What stunned her was the forehead protector that now rested above her son's eyes now. It was an object that all academy students received upon graduating and there were never any extras because only a number to match the amount of possible graduates for a given year were ever made. In short the only way that the manager of "Ethan's" could have gotten his hands on one would be for him to steal one from a ninja from Konoha or be from Konoha himself. That was unlikely as only exiles only left the village permanently and those who left on missions were always eager to return. If this 'Ethan' was an exile he certainly was not exhibiting typical characteristics. They tended to be either uncontrollably bloodthirsty or desperate to remain hidden. While there was no shortage of deaths in this town none to her knowledge fit the description of a ninja's M.O. As for the hiding she somehow doubted pulling a stunt like this would remain known to only the local residents.

_In any case it is clear that if I want answers I will have to have a 'talk' with this Ethan myself._ Jessica thought to herself as she headed in the direction of the store.

She just hoped that Alex didn't wind up drawing too much attention before she could bring this spell to an end.

Costume Shop "Ethan's" , Ten Minutes Later 

"Hello! Anyone home?" Giles asked as they stepped into the darkened costume shop.

The place seemed to be deserted to both the experienced Watcher and the novice wicca for there were no signs that anyone had been there recently. The only sign of life was the partially askew curtain leading to the bad area of the shop that had the flicker of a light illuminating it. They both moved to the curtain and when Giles pushed it to the side they saw the true source of the illumination in the form of a stone bust of the Roman god Janus. However unlike normal stone busts this one had green glowing eyes. This told these two residents of Sunnyhell it was the source of the spell.

"Janus. Roman mythical god." Giles said as his mind began to flip through the various spells that would require Janus to be used as a power source.

"What does this mean?" Willow asked as her knowledge of magic was not nearly as extensive as the Watcher's.

"Primarily the division of self. Male and female, light and dark." Giles said with a distracted air about himself.

"Chunky and creamy. Oh, no, sorry, that's peanut butter." Came a joking British voice as the manager of the store emerged from the opposite end of the room.

_It's him! How? Why is he here after all these years! _, Giles thought frantically as he recognized the mastermind before saying "Willow, get out of here, now."

"But … ?" Willow asked as she tried to understand why Giles would order her to go now that they had found the source of the costume spell.

"NOW!" Giles yelled as he fixed her with a look that demanded immediate obedience.

Reluctantly the redhead leaves and only the Watcher and the chaos mage remained staring at each other across the room.

"Hello, Ethan." Giles said in a tone that couldn't be colder if it had been said in the depths of space.

"Hello, Ripper." Ethan said fully confident that he was in the position of power.

Alleyway, Warehouse District 

"Heh, heh, pretty, pretty!" said the dirty pirate as he advanced on the young woman in the frilly dress who tried frantically to get to her feet but to no avail.

However that was as far as Xander was willing to let the dirty man get as he leapt into the air and delivered a flying side-kick that slammed into the pirates chest. Unlike what would happen when a normal person delivered such a move when Xander made contact the pirate was sent two feet into the air and five feet back into the alley's wall. However he didn't stop there for as soon as he landed he took the offensive. Again he attacked delivering a hard punch across the dirty brigand's jaw. The solid hits overwhelmed the pirate's senses and once the ninja stepped away watching as his enemy dropped to the ground. He waited several moments to see if there was any further sign of resistance or opposition but the pirate lay still and did not move.

"It's strange, but beating up that pirate gave me a weird sense of closure." Xander said to Angel as the man, Cordelia and Buffy came up behind him.

It was clear that while the immediate threat had been dealt with the noblewoman still felt threatened in some way and judging from the nervous glances she was sending Angel he was the cause. Could she have somehow stumbled upon the truth behind this man's unusual combination of dark energy and human chakra? Unlikely but whatever was causing her to be edgy around the man she seemed to have it under control. Now what they had to do was make their way back to the house and reinforce all the entrances and exits so that no further intruders could get in or out. He was about to make this known to the others when he sensed a familiar energy approaching quickly from the opposite end of the alley.

"Guys!" Willow yelled as she ran up to them.

"Willow!" Angel exclaimed as he saw the young redhead for the first time in her current attire.

"Guys, you gotta get inside! NOW!" Willow yelled as she looked back the way she had just come.

On the other end of the alley an odd collection of beings ranging from different species of demon to more of the little demony things that he had seen when he had first come to earlier this evening. A vampire seemed to be in the lead and it didn't take a genius to see what his intentions were right at that moment.

"We need to get inside **now**!" Xander said as he looked about the area for an open window or nearby door.

They all moved as a group in the opposite direction of the group advancing on their position and checked every door they came upon to see if it would open. Normally Xander wouldn't be concerned with retreating with so few opponents but too many of the enemy force were those who had been changed into their costumes. He could identify them by noticing the taint to their chakra and while he was confident he could beat them if he had to without seriously hurting them. However that might leave him open to attack by the real demons and only Angel would be available to keep the women safe. He hadn't seen the man fight in person so he had no idea how many enemies Angel could handle and this was not the time to find out.

_If only we knew what the source of the spell was we could destroy it and end this!_ Xander thought as they left the alley.

"Ethan's" , Ten Minutes Later 

**__**

"What? No hug? Aren't you pleased to see your old mate, Rupert?" Ethan asked with false friendliness.

"I'm just surprised I didn't guess it was you. This Halloween stunt stinks of Ethan Rayne." Giles said with disgust at what his acquaintance had done for his own enjoyment.

"Yes, it does, doesn't it? Don't wish to blow my own trumpet, but it's genius. The very embodiment of 'be careful what you wish for'." Ethan said cockily as he kept his eyes on his 'old mate'.

"It's sick, brutal, and it harms the innocent." Giles said bitterly as he found it difficult to endure Rayne's cocky attitude

"Oh, and we all know that you are the champion of innocents and all things pure and good, Rupert. It's quite a little act you've got going here, old man." Ethan said with some admiration at the acting ability of his old friend.

"It's no act. It's who I am." Giles stated with a firmness that implied he completely believed what he was saying.

"Who you are? The Watcher, sniveling, tweed-clad guardian of the Slayer and her kin? I think not. I know who you are, Rupert, and I know what you're capable of." , Ethan said with a snort of disbelief before taking on a look of consideration, "But they don't, do they? They have no idea where you come from."

"Break the spell, Ethan. Then leave this place and never come back." Giles demanded as he moved towards the dark haired man.

"You get to live." Giles said with no more emotion than a machine.

"Oh, Rupert, you're scaring me!" Ethan said with mock fright.

Unfortunately for the Chaos mage he should have taken the Watcher's warning more seriously for if he had he might have been able to avoid the punch to his gut. If not that then maybe the right-hook to the face that sent him to the ground. In any case Giles was going to show him just how serious he was and why it had been a bad idea to come to Sunnydale to cause trouble. That and maybe get some small manner of payback for all the trouble Rayne had gotten him into when they were younger.

**_Warehouse District, Ten Minutes Later_**

"Here!" Angel yelled as he found an open door on one of the warehouses.

None of the group wasted anytime in getting into the door and as soon as everyone was inside Xander immediately jammed two kunai into key points on the doorframe to make it impossible to open. Someone could still break the door down but they would **not** be able to open it the normal way and the time they wasted trying he could use to come up with a plan.

"Check to see if there are any other ways in!" Xander orders as he himself begins to make a visual survey of the building and its weaknesses.

He tried to block out the fuss that Buffy was making and the sarcastic remarks from Cordelia as they weren't going to save them. Near as he could tell the door they came in and the windows on the second floor were the only ways in aside from the main entrance where the big rigs came in. Those however were made of solid steel and would require at least four strong people to open it and hold it up and that was if it was unlocked. When he saw the group led by the vampire he had only four big and strong demons that could lift such a door. With them temporarily out of the way he could make quick work out of the half-pints. Once they were out of the way he could focus on the powerhouses and deal with them in the correct manner. That would leave only the leader to deal with. He didn't look too dangerous but then again appearances could be deceiving so it would be in his best interests not to get cocky.

It wasn't long before the banging started on the door but he had done a good job with the kunai as they were managing to keep the door shut. However dents were already beginning to show in the door and he figured they had five minutes before the door came down and the demons came in.

"Angel! Get over to the main doors in front and see if you can get them open!" , Xander ordered as he began to pile things quickly in front of the metal door, "Don't open them right away or you'll give away our escape route! Wait for my signal before doing anything!"

Angel nodded somewhat reluctantly and went to do as he was ordered. Xander on the other hand continued to pile things in front of the door using both the light stuff and the heavier objects that had been stored in this building. When he put down two oil barrels down in front of the door he turned and saw that Cordelia, Buffy and Willow were looking at him with a mixture of disbelief and awe.

"What?" Xander asked with some confusion.

"How did you lift those barrels?" , Willow exclaimed as she looked back and forth between the barrels and Xander, "They have to weigh a couple of hundred pounds **each**!"

"Oh? You mean these barrels?" , Xander said as he looked at the objects in question, "We used to train with heavier objects all the time back home. Besides with a little chakra to enhance your own strength you can lift things as much as five times your own weight. Besides the barrels are mostly empty anyways so they don't weight as much as they would if they were full."

This seemed to answer their questions somewhat but they still seemed shocked at his show of strength. It was fairly common to those who lived outside the range of the ninja villages and had never seen a true ninja at work. He hoped though that they wouldn't come to rely on this strength too much or else they may find themselves in something of a bind when things got messy. Looking around he looked to see if there was anything else he could use to block the doors but found nothing that would stand up to strength heading their way.

"I can't get the doors open! They're rusted shut!" , Angel said as he returned to the group, "I guess this place hasn't been used for awhile."

"Either that or the owner is a real cheapskate!" Cordelia said putting her own two cents into the conversation.

"Whatever the reason it means that we are trapped in here. The only way out is blocked and it's only a matter of time until those demons bust in." Xander said as he cursed the luck they seemed to be having tonight.

"Nice job ninja-man!" Cordelia said sarcastically as she no doubt blamed him for this somehow.

"You know it's not exactly a good move to get snippy to one of the few people charged with keeping you alive." , Xander said finally tired of receiving sarcasm and ridicule, "If I wanted to I could escape myself and leave you all behind."

This seemed to shut Cordelia up completely as Willow said "No! No! We'll be good!"

Xander grinned slightly at this but was not allowed to indulge in that for very long as a blow like thunder hit the door finally tearing it off its hinges. This nullified the effect of his kunai which were only able to do their job so long as the door remained on its hinges. With the door gone the demons made short work of the objects he had placed up against the door to keep it shut and within seconds the fight was on. He had to increase the odds in their favor but there was only one technique he knew of that could do that. He just hoped that these demons weren't as good at hand to hand combat as he was otherwise this trick would be over quickly.

Quickly performing the necessary hand seals he said "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

Instantly all around him clones appeared in the exact same pose that he was in when he finished forming the last seal. There were only ten of them including the original but hopefully that would be enough to give them a chance. With a battle cry of aggression he charged the demons spilling into the warehouse and signaled his clones to do the same. He was lucky in that it appeared that most of them were unprepared for this sudden change in numbers and out of the fifteen demons that had come in five went down in the first few seconds. However most of those were the ones who used to be kids but were transformed by their costumes into demons. The real demons however only allowed their surprise to show for a fraction of the time that the others did and quickly fought back. Deciding that this had to be finished quickly he chose to use the gouken taijutsu favored by those ninjas who were not especially talented at ninjutsu or genjutsu. It was designed to break bones and cause a great deal of external damage using brute force alone. This, while not his forte, would be most effective here as anything else either required more time or room than he was currently permitted. For awhile it worked and he could hear the bones of his enemies breaking but all too soon for his liking his lack of experience with gouken taijutsu made his replicants vulnerable and one by one they vanished with a solid blow by an enemy. By the time they were all gone there were still five demons remaining alive including the leader vampire who was only looking slightly worn around the edges.

_Damn it! I had hoped to get the numbers down to at least three including the leader._ , Xander thought as three of the remaining five demons focused on him, _At least they look as banged up as I feel right now!_

He had fought well but the shortcomings in fighting on a battleground not entirely of his choosing had hurt him bad. He was now sporting several bruises and he was pretty sure that some of his ribs were either severely bruised or perhaps even cracked. He would still be able to fight but if any of them landed a solid hit there he would either lose the concentration he needed for jutsus or be unable to perform them in the first place. He had to think of something quick or he was going to be in a heap of trouble in about three seconds.

"Stop!" came a voice from behind the demons and it caused the three of them to halt in their tracks.

As one both he and his enemies looked in the direction of the voice and what Xander saw froze him in horror rather than surprise. The vampire leader of this pack of demons had somehow overcome Angel and now held Buffy by the throat and had one of his own kunai at her neck. She was trembling in fear and it looked like if things got any worse she would start crying due to the fear she was feeling. Cordelia wasn't much better off as one of the demons had clamped down on both her arms and looked like he wanted to make a wish with her as the wishbone. Willow was helpless in her current state of intangibility. That left him as the only one on the good guy side still free to fight. He tried to think of any way at all he could turn the tables on this guy but he was just too far away to do anything. If he went to save Buffy the demon would most certainly kill Cordelia and the opposite would happen if he tried to save Cordelia. He looked to see if Angel was in any condition to lend a hand but it looked like he was going to keel over any minute. Obviously he had overestimated his skill as a warrior and was about to pay the price.

"Now I don't know where you learned those fancy tricks Droopy but I ain't about to go round and round with you all night!" , the Vampire said obviously irritated with the surprising difficulty, "Now drop the knife or I use this one to cut up the Slayer here."

For three seconds Xander's mind raced to try and think of a way he could change things but in the end he had no choice but to drop the kunai in his hand. At once the three demons that had been charging him grabbed him by the arms and the neck before forcing him closer to their leader. When the vamp was sure that the Jounin was definitely restrained and couldn't do anything to hurt him he turned his attention back to Buffy. This is the chance that he had been hoping would happen from the moment he had given himself up moments ago. The vampire obviously no longer considered him a threat nor did the demon who was holding Cordelia as he relaxed his grip a bit on her. Not enough for the catwoman to get away but enough that it would take him three to four seconds to get back into a position where he could carry through on his earlier threat. If he was going to act it had to be now! Letting his arms hang loose at his sides he felt as the two throwing needles dropped from where he had stored them in his sleeves. Tearing his arms out of the grip of the demons holding them he wasted no time in slamming both needles into the demons' throats. The demon behind him was so shocked at he let go of Xander's neck but that freed him to do something else.

"Cordelia **DUCK**!" Xander yelled as he reached behind him and grabbed the demon who had been holding him by the neck and threw him over his head at the demon holding Cordelia. This allowed him to charge the vampire leading the group and just as the platinum blonde corpse turned to see what the trouble was he had already lost.

"KONOHA SENPUU!" Xander yelled as he kicked the vampire into the air before he could re-establish his hold on Buffy and ruin his one chance.

Jumping up after him he proceeded to launch a series of punch and kick combinations at the vampire before finally slamming him back to the ground with a kick. Touching down in a fighting stance he was glad to see that the vampire had landed with the demons he had stuck two needles into. That would make getting rid of them all the easier with one final move.

"It's over vampire." Xander said with deadly seriousness as he pulled the face mask down to reveal everything from the nose down to the neck.

Ethan's Costume Store, Sunnydale, Five Minutes Earlier 

"And you said the Ripper was long gone!" Ethan said between breaths as he tried to breath past the pain.

"Tell me how to stop the spell." Giles demanded calmly as though he was indifferent to the pain he had been inflicting on Ethan.

"Say 'pretty please'." Ethan said sarcastically from his prone position on the floor.

To this Giles responded with a kick to the kidney and from her hiding place just outside of the back room in the alley behind the store she had to say that the Watcher was doing an admirable job of dishing out the proper punishment. She had arrived just as the beating had started and had decided that she would let Rupert get his pound of flesh before she had her own private conversation with him. So far she was happy with what she was seeing but wondered if the chaos mage was going to be in any condition to answer the questions she wanted to ask. For the moment though she could do nothing until the Watcher left or she would wind up opening up a whole new can of questions that she very much wanted to keep shut.

"Now, tell me how to stop the spell." Giles said as he wiped the blood from his hand with a handkerchief.

"Janus! Break its statue!" Ethan forced out as he reached the limit of the pain he could endure.

With that answer Rupert Giles picked up the bust and hefted it over his head to smash it. Outside Jessica Harris braced herself for the shockwave of energy about to be released. The Watcher hefted the bust high over his head with a downwards thrust let go of the stone sculpture to let gravity to do the rest.

Warehouse, Same Time 

Bringing up his hands he began the series of seals that would unleash the move that would finish this fight once and for all.

_Serpent._ Xander thought as he brought his hands into something similar to a prayer position or a double axe handle position.

Ethan's Shop, One Second Later 

The bust of the Roman god Janus was now free of the Watchers hands and was now trapped in the grip of gravity. There was nothing to save it and so it was doomed to its fate as it would soon impact the much harder floor.

Warehouse, Same Time 

_Horse, Hare._ Xander thought as he form the third last and second last seal for the technique he was about to perform.

He could see that the vampire was slowly managing to regenerate and recover from the barrage of punches and kicks and knew that the demon would have just enough time to see the flame coming at him before he was turned into ash.

Ethan's Costume Shop, One Second Later 

As the bust was about to hit the ground Jessica could see Ethan Rayne was sliding his way in her direction no doubt planning to use the destruction of the bust to his advantage. Deciding that such a cowardly move fit nicely with nicely with her own agenda she quickly leapt onto the roof of the store and waited for him to appear. She would follow him for a few blocks and then make her move. She would be quick and efficient with her questioning before making sure that this man could not enlighten her son as to where he got the uniform. She knew there was a chance that Alex might retain some of the knowledge bestowed upon him by the spell this chaos mage cast. Hopefully it would become little more than a half remembered dream once the spell was broken. She would have to keep a close watch over him and if he showed any of the knowledge and skill of the people of Konoha she would put her plan into motion.

At that precise moment, when Ethan exited the shop, Jessica could hear the bust shatter and almost lost her balance as the energy flowed in an outward ripple from the shop outwards to the rest of the town.

Warehouse, Same Time 

Tiger, Xander thought as the final seal was formed.

"KATON RYUUKA NO JUTSU!" Xander yelled bring his hands up to his mouth and as if from nowhere he was engulfed in a bright and terrible inferno.

For a moment he had no doubt it looked to the others that he had made a mistake and was being consumed by his own attack. Fortunately he knew better as without warning the fire exploded forward and drowned the vampire as well as the two demons that were near him. However just as he was about to intensify the power of the flames he felt an overwhelming energy pass through him and his concentration was shattered causing the flames to disappear. For several moments neither his body nor his mind were coherent or cognizant of their status or what was going on around him. Soon though it all came back to him but instead of jounin Xander of the hidden Leaf Village of Kohona it was just plain old Alexander LaVelle Harris of Sunnydale. Needless to say he was confused at the path of scorch marks, immolated corpses of demonic origin and the mother of all holes in the main doors of the warehouse.

Turning around he saw that the kids who had once been demons were coming too and unfortunately crying up a storm due to the pain they were feeling along with the fear of not knowing what was going on. Willow was gone but for some reason he knew that just meant that she had returned to her body where it had been left. Buffy was pulling off the wig she had worn with the noble woman's dress and looking distinctly unhappy at how she had acted that evening. That changed however when she caught sight of him and then past him to see the burnt path of destruction leading through the front door a look of both genuine awe and interest.

Walking over to him she asked "Xander? What kind of ninja were you supposed to be again? I'm just asking because I don't think I've ever seen one do what you've been doing all night."

"I wish I knew Buffy but I think we'd better get these kids back to their homes before their parents start to worry." Xander replied trying to avoid the going into his uber-ninjaness until he understood it better himself.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." , Buffy said looking at the crying and frightened kids around them, "Hey! Where'd Willow go?"

Alleyway in Sunnydale, Ten Minutes Later 

Jessica was glad when Ethan finally stopped running and stopped because the farther he took her away from her home the later she would be getting back and the madder that Tony would be. Her only hope was that the man had gotten so drunk with what she had left for him in the lobster pot that he had passed out and would not wake up until sometime Saturday afternoon. Still it would be best if she 'introduced' herself now and got what she was after before some factor helped the wretched man get away. Dropping down from the rooftop to the alleyway floor she didn't give him a chance to notice her before she had him pinned against the wall with her forearm against his throat. He struggled for a moment, trying to get free, until he finally looked her in the eyes and froze on the spot. These were not normal eyes for the irises were blood red and arrayed in a pyramid formation were three black dots with tadpole like tails on them. The tails weren't very long, probably only a millimeter or two, but will all three dots placed on top of the irises it had a disturbing effect on most people. She had not wanted to use this ability but it would help her tell whether or not he was telling the truth using the insight it gave her and she would use its hypnosis to make both her and her son safe again.

"Hello Mr. Rayne. Earlier this evening I learned that you came into possession of a uniform belonging to a ninja from the hidden Leaf Village of Kohona." , Jessica said with a deadly seriousness to her voice, "I want to know precisely who you got it from and whether you might have left a trail that could lead someone here."

"I … I got the uniform in a .. **cough** .. village outside Kobe, Japan." , Ethan said between coughs as his injuries began to take their toll, "I think the lad .. was some kind of exile from Konoha. He didn't seem like the sort who would … be tolerated for very long by the Hokage. I got him drunk off his arse and stole his uniform for tonight's festivities."

This was something of a surprise that someone outside of the Watcher's Council would have such an impressive amount of knowledge about one of the hidden villages. Either the exile in question had gotten quite talkative when drunk or the Hunter-nins had seriously let themselves go in terms of efficiency and discipline. When she had lived there they had gone all out to make sure that no information about their village got into the hands of outsiders unless the Hokage wanted them to have the info. Maybe Rupert Giles spilled the info to Rayne in one of their previous encounters when he was this 'Ripper' person. In any case that only left the second question and it was by far the most important of the two.

"What are the odds you left a trail behind that he or another ninja could follow to Sunnydale?" Jessica asked when it there was a bit of resistance to her gaze.

"Bloody slim! I **swear**! I left the very next day under the name Ukagi Maxwell!" , Rayne replied getting more and more unnerved, "I also have a charm implanted in my right arm that keeps people from scrying my location! It would take a miracle for anyone to track me here!"

It seemed promising. Depending on the ninja's ability to hold his liquor and how much he remembered the following day it was entirely possible he would not recall who had stolen his uniform. How far would Konoha go in order to find this lost uniform? Assuming he was not an exile they would likely look within their own boarders and then ask the ninjas in the neighboring countries if they had seen it. Once all the countries with hidden villages were searched they would likely just ask or in some cases order people to keep an eye out for it on missions. Still in the end she knew she had only one course of action when it came to Ethan Rayne. Even if there was a one in a million chance that someone from the hidden villages might come here the odds of them encountering Rayne in the future were considerably less. He had already admitted that he traveled through areas where ninja frequently traveled and given his affinity for chaos he would likely return to that potential source of resources again. She couldn't let that happen.

"Thank you for the information Mr. Rayne. I appreciate your honesty but I am afraid I cannot take the chance of being discovered here." , Jessica said as she directed some chakra to her eyes, "**Now look into my eyes!"**

In the days that followed the police would find Mr. Rayne wandering the streets seemingly in a confused daze. It wasn't until they got him back to the police department that he began to move and react normally and when he did the chaos began. When the media interviewed the officers who were present they would say that the man went nuts firing off these lightning bolts from his hands. While doing this he would go on and on about the 'power of the Dark Side of the Force' and how they were fools for their lack of vision. In the end Ethan Rayne received four bullets center mast for his efforts and was dead before the hour was up. Most officers believed he was some kind of insane Star Wars fan who believed that he was some kind of emperor. In the end they just wrote him off as a 'mentally disturbed individual' and that the officers killed him in self-defense. Of course in the section of their reports when asked what he attacked them with they all wrote that he had gotten a hold of one of their service pistols. Still that was pretty much par for the course in the Sunnydale P.D squad room since those were the standing orders for any unusual occurrences sent directly from the Mayor.


	2. Discovery and Tragedy

Three Weeks Later, Sunnydale High School, Student Lounge, Noon 

**__**

"'Are you a people person, or do you prefer keeping your own company?' Well, what if I'm a people person who keeps his own company by default?" Xander asked as he looked at the question in his career placement test.

It had been three weeks since the mess that was Halloween came to an end and while some might think the Scooby gang could have a couple of weeks until the next crisis came up. Sadly one of the higher beings in the universe had to be name Mr. Murphy because not only did they have a psycho ex-friend of Buffy's to deal with but a dark part of Giles' past as well. For the Former an old friend of Buff's from Hemery High School in LA showed up with the story that his father had been reassigned to Sunnydale. As a result Ford had to go to school at Sunnydale High school along with the rest of them which pleased Buffy to no end. Xander could kinda see why as it was always good to see an old friend again after a long time. Turned out though that Ford was dying from some incurable disease and thought that becoming a vamp was the only way to survive. Obviously no one had told him that in becoming a vamp your soul vacate your body and hand it over to a demon spirit. Fortunately thanks to some nosey snooping by him and Angel they managed to sniff out the truth in time to warn Buffy. Together they foiled the guy's plans but not in time to prevent Ford and a couple of other 'true believers' from being kidnapped by the local vamps. Their bodies had shown up about four days later but thankfully did not rise as newbie vamps. The latter crisis though came from Giles' past as a reckless dabbler in the black arts that messed with some conjuring magic he shouldn't have and wound up killing a friend. That should have been the end of it but the demon they had conjured didn't stay gone after the first time and was hunting down the original group members. Thanks to some quick thinking on Willow's part they had been able to vanquish the demon by forcing it into Angel for his inner demon to destroy. It had been close though and had almost cost Ms. Calendar her life since as soon as it was finished with Giles' friend Philip it had jumped bodies into Jenny's. It was a good thing that he had managed to sense the taint to Jenny's chakra right away or things might have gotten very complicated. As it was Giles almost did something stupid by offering himself in trade for Ms. Calendar's life regardless of the fact that you should never trust a demon. It all worked out in the end and he had explained away his input by saying he saw Jenny's eyes flash neon green for a moment. He didn't want to let them know how much he had retained from his little stint as a ninja Halloween night.

With the others they had lost virtually everything they had gained that night except for a few vague talents. Buffy had shown an increased aptitude for speaking and reading French as well as sowing in home ed. Willow showed increased talent when it came to perceiving the spirit world and almost walked into walls for a week before she stopped thinking she could walk through solid objects. However those abilities pretty much vanished over time and they had assumed that the same could be said of him and what he knew as a Jounin. That was not entirely true though as the memories and knowledge he had gained there was still pretty much there. Some of the more advanced stuff though was a complete blur but everything up to the rank of chuunin was still fresh in his mind. It was like the ending of the spell had washed away all of the newest stuff but left the basics pretty much intact. In any case that along with the muscles he had gained from that night made him eager to find out if he could be as big a help in fighting demons as he thought he could be. Sadly when he had tried to pull off some of the same techniques he had Halloween night he found himself incapable of doing the more powerful ones and easily tired out with the jutsus he did manage to pull off. Obviously knowing how to do something in your mind didn't mean you could do it for real. Like anything else in life a person could explain how to do something until they were blue in the face but it still took lots of practice to do it.

So every spare moment between school, hanging with the guys and fighting the demon population he trained in private both to keep what he had and to move towards what he had been that night. The physical stuff like running, weight lifting and practicing his balance he could do at any gym in town but he wanted to keep the number of people who saw him doing it to a minimum. So with a little borrowing and a little resourcefulness he had managed to cobble together a gym for himself in the old condemned science building near the High School Campus. It had taken some fire damage thanks to those guys and their Frankenstein monster but the fire department showed up in time and managed to put the flames out quickly. The building was still scheduled to be knocked down but it had been so for years so who knew when the town council would actually get down to it. In the meantime it allowed him to train in private and improve his skills bit by bit every day. He still had some trouble with certain techniques and had just recently learned to create two replications of himself but it would be awhile before he would be able to attempt the shadow replication technique. That was a technique that only Jounin level ninja could do because they had sufficient chakra to pull it off. A Chuunin might be able to pull it off once but wouldn't be able to maintain it for long and would be pretty wiped afterwards. For someone at the level of genin it was impossible and unfortunately his skill level was at the halfway point between chuunin and genin. Still he was getting better and he hoped that he could at least be competent enough to be considered for the chuunin exam by mid-summer. That was his goal at least but it would all depend on how much training he managed to get in without the others finding out about it.

_Buffy, Willow and Giles aren't the only people I have to keep this from though,_ Xander thought as he filled in the answer for the question he just read, I also have to keep this from mom_. I was just lucky I was able to put the forehead protector back in that box without her knowing I took it in the first place._

He knew now with the knowledge he gained from Halloween night that his mother had to have once been a ninja of Konoha. It was something that had thrown him for a loop when he had gotten home and put the pieces together. For as long as he could remember he had never seen her as anything other than a spineless drunk of a woman who stood by and did nothing while his dad beat him. Now though he knew that she once had the abilities of at least a genin, although hopefully a chuunin, but that that opened up a whole new box of questions. If she had these abilities then why didn't she stand up for herself? Why didn't she stop the beatings and force Tony Harris to become a better husband and father? It made no sense! The only answer he had come up with was that she was on a mission of some kind and was under some pretty impressive cover. Part of a ninja's job is to be invisible to the enemy both in the literal sense as well as the figurative. Sometimes that meant pretending to be something absolutely different than what you really were in order to blend in. Perhaps his mother's cover was to appear to be the drunk wife of an equally drunk Tony Harris? If that was the case then she would have no choice but to stick to that role until the mission's conclusion. What that mission could be he wasn't sure but given that this was the Hellmouth it could be any one of a number of things. Maybe they were hired to keep an eye on the place because they believed some exiled ninja was going to try something apocalyptic in the future. If so then perhaps they weren't all that certain when this exile was going to try something and so had his mom move here before he was born to keep watch.

_If that's the case I could get her in some serious trouble if I told her I found her forehead protector_, Xander thought as he moved onto the next question in the career placement test, _Maybe I already have caused her some trouble by jumping around town doing ninja stuff. If that's the case then the only way I can make it up to her and not get her in any more trouble is to keep my training completely secret._

It wasn't easy though as it meant very little sleep some nights. This got him in trouble and sometimes detention if he fell asleep in class. Fortunately though, most people saw this as just the usual bit of slacking off that he did off and on every week so no one suspected anything. Even the Scoobies didn't think anything of it other than he overexerted himself on their patrols and needed to lighten up a bit in that area. He didn't like the idea that they might become so worried that they'd try and push him out of the slaying so he would have to use his training to up his stamina more. If he did then maybe he would be able to get away with sleeping less and staying awake longer during the day. Until then he would play the role of slacker and use it as a cover.

"So, mark 'none of the above'," Buffy said looking up to see Willow approaching from the direction of the hallways.

"Well, there are no boxes for 'none of the above'. That would introduce too many variables into their mushroom head, number-crunching little world," Xander stated with some frustration and more than a little annoyance at whoever designed this thing.

"I'm sensing bitterness," Willow said observationally as she sat down next to her friends.

"No, it's just these people can't tell from one multiple-choice test what we're gonna be doing for the rest of our lives. It's ridiculous!" Xander exclaimed as he dropped the pencil he had been using.

"I'm kinda curious to find out what sort of career I could have," Willow said with an eager smile at the potential prospects for her future.

"What, and suck all the spontaneity out of being young and stupid? I'd rather live in the dark," Xander said although that statement was more a result of his opinion of the test than pondering a future job.

"You're not gonna be young forever," Willow advised as she knew that sooner or later her friend would have to find a way to support himself.

"Yes, but I'll always be stupid," Xander said in perfect deadpan in an attempt to get a laugh.

They just sat there and looked at him without saying a word.

"Okay, let's not all rush to disagree here," Xander said a little insulted that his friends didn't immediately contradict his 'stupid' claim.

"You're not stupid," Buffy said seriously placing a comforting hand on his forearm.

It improved Xander's mood considerably to have the support of his own personal hero knowing that if she said something like that she genuinely meant it. The mood turned sour quickly however when a familiar snotty voice reached his ears and he turned to see one Cordelia Chase walking by with a clipboard in hand.

"'I aspire to help my fellow man,'" Cordelia said reading one of the answers to the questions, "Check. As long as he's not smelly, dirty or something gross!"

"Cordelia Chase, always ready to give a helping hand to the rich and the pretty," Xander said with sarcasm as he mentally wondered if the woman could be any more spoiled.

"Which, lucky me, excludes you. Twice," Cordelia said scathingly as she proceeded to walk by with two Cordettes in tow.

Unable to come with a superior comeback he resigned himself to the fact that there was nothing he could do no matter what he felt like.

"Is murder always a crime?" he asked speculatively as he recalled a few moves from Konoha he'd like to practice on Queen C.

Buffy however was focused on her test as she said, "Do I like shrubs?"

"That's between you and your god." Xander replied as he put his retaliation against the rich brat on the shelf for later.

"What'd you put down?" Buffy asked Willow no doubt with the intent of choosing whatever the redheaded genius chose.

"I came down on the side of shrubs." Willow replied only giving her blonde friend a quick glance as she continued with her own test.

"Go with shrubs! Okay!" , Buffy said as she marked the correct box in but let out a growl of frustration right after, "Uhhh! I shouldn't even be bothering with this. It's all mootville for me. No matter what my aptitude test says, we already know my deal."

"Yup, high risk, sub-minimum wage..." Xander said with mock excitement.

"Pointy wooden things..." Buffy said as she added to the list of things she had to look forward to in the future.

"Then why are you even taking the test?" Willow asked no doubt confused as to why the Slayer would bother with the test if she didn't expect to put the results to good use.

"It's Principal Snyder's hoop of the week. He's not happy unless I'm jumping. Believe me, I would not be here otherwise." Buffy said clearly not happy with Snyder's latest attempt to make her life miserable.

"You're not even a teensy weensy bit curious about what kinda career you could've had? I mean, if you weren't already the Slayer and all." Willow asked trying to make the test seem interesting.

"Do the words 'sealed in fate' ring any bells for you, Will? Why go there?" Buffy asked snappily as her friend seemed to forget her 'destiny'.

"Y'know, with that kind of attitude you could've had a bright future as an employee at the DMV." Xander said shaking his pencil at her since he believed she was being a tad too snippy towards Willow.

He knew that Buffy was always worrying about her 'fate' as the Slayer and whenever anyone advised her to think or plan about the future she got cranky. If he was in her position and had a destiny he thought he could not escape he wouldn't want anyone to bring it up in his presence either. Still he knew that Willow was just trying to cheer her friend up and didn't deserve to get her head bitten off for that.

"I'm sorry, it's just... unless Hell freezes over and every vamp in Sunnydale puts in for early retirement, I'd say my future is pretty much a non-issue." Buffy said sounding pretty down which was no surprise given the topic.

"Look Buff you can't keep thinking like that. It's like they always say, if you think you're going to lose than you're going to lose." Xander said trying to shake his friend from her self-induced funk.

"I know, I know. It's just hard to believe I can have an entire life outside of slaying when the next fight might be your last." Buffy said trying hard to believe his words rather than her own personal experience as a Slayer.

"Well you have one thing that no other Slayer had and that's going to be the thing to make the difference." Xander said with unwavering confidence.

"What?" Buffy asked with interest and perhaps a sliver of hope.

"Friends. All the previous Slayers fought and died alone thanks to those idiots in the Watchers Council." , Xander said with no small amount of bitterness voiced towards Travers and his goon squad, "With us around I'm betting you'll beat the record for the longest lived Slayer by seventy years easy."

Buffy looked at him as though he had just promised her a life of nothing but happiness and he had no doubt a war of to believe or not to believe was being waged within her. If she chose to believe his claims and it turned out not to be true sometime in the future it would be a serious blow to her soul. However if she chose not to believe him her life would be considerably darker and hope would become as fleeting as a dream upon awakening in the morning. That meant everything came down to either taking a chance or staying safe and secure in our own beliefs regardless of whether they were right or wrong. In the end, for someone like Buffy, there was only one real choice she could live with.

"Thanks Xander." Buffy said as she wrapped her arms around him in a real hug.

Abandoned Mansion, Sunnydale, Same Time 

"My Spike is gone! GONE! GONE! GONE!" Drusilla wailed as she knelt next to her bed clutching her Ms. Edith to her chest.

It was like this every day for the past three weeks and if the newborn vamps who worked for her weren't so afraid of her they'd have gone elsewhere after the first day. However thanks in part to the few humans they had tricked into believing that they were going to be turned Drusilla had been brought much closer to her full strength. She still wasn't strong enough to face the Slayer one-on-one but she was more than strong enough to be named leader and kill anyone who said otherwise. The only time she was coherent though was at night when the moon was out. During the day she was lost in her own madness which tended to follow a predictable pattern. It would start out with mourning Spike at the top of her lungs, slide into a raving hatred of the 'mean boy' and end with what could only be interpreted as a scatterbrained planning session. So far all the rest of them could make out was 'birds of a feather kill together' and 'if you cannot beat them then join them'. While that gave the various vamps under her an idea of what she had in store for the Slayer and her crew it was still like trying to understand advanced arithmetic. You might be able to figure out part of the problem but understanding the entire equation was something best left to others of a similar mindset. In any case most of them decided that until she did something really crazy that might get them killed they would follow orders without bothering to understand them.

Still there were rumors going around that there was some new player in town who made the Slayer look like a wimp by comparison. At least that is what most of the demons and non-aligned vampires believed after word got around about Spike being killed off. Some of the local residents of the warehouse district had gone to see the site of the blonde vampire's demise and been a little intimidated by what they had found. Not only had there been the charred remains of two known and powerful demons inside but also the front doors, the metal front doors had a hole melted in them. It had not been done with explosives nor had it been done by a flamethrower as the heat that would have melted the door would have also made short work of the weapon itself. Some thought it had been done by acid but that had been quickly seen as wrong as the evidence at the scene did not suggest a liquid based weapon. Most had come to believe that the Slayer and her friends had somehow found some dragon artefact that gave them its fiery breath as a weapon. Some didn't care one way or the other and had left town within a week of the Billy Idol vampire's death. Still those that served under Drusilla weren't worried. She might have been crazy but she was also as deadly as either Spike or the Master and had the ability to perceive the future. For those reasons if no other they knew that they would survive and prosper in the end. However fate has a way of rendering the odds meaningless and when the demon spirits that inhabited the minions of Drusilla reached hell they knew they should have left town when they had the chance.

The first vampire perished when a single bolt of lightning exploded through the ceiling and slammed through the floor dusting the vampire. The other ten could only look at what had happened and wondered at the odds that lightning would choose that time to strike and actually hit one of their number. Over the next three seconds they took some solace in the fact that it was a scientific fact that lightning almost never struck the same place twice. However what these undead corpses failed to realize was that the elemental attack they had just witnessed was not one that obeyed the laws of nature. As they would soon find out there was a mind at work behind that attack and it desired only their deaths. These denizens of the undead got their first indication of this when seemingly out of nowhere two nearly invisible wires shot out from the shadows and guided by an unseen hand circled around two supports trapping four vampires who had been standing between them. Before they could try and snap the wires and get free the wires pulsed blue for a moment and then like a cool arriving time traveler effect from the "Terminator" series electricity arced between the two supports. It was so concentrated that it was almost impossible to see through but that wasn't much of a concern as its intent was to kill not to obscure something from sight. It lasted only for a few seconds but when the electricity finally ceased not only where the vampires toast the wire had been vaporized as well and now existed only as vapor rising to the ceiling. This left only five of the original ten vampires besides Drusilla who had been in the warehouse. Needless to say they were seriously spooked by this point and quickly formed a circle around the table in the center of the room. It was a basically sound strategy to keep your enemy or enemies from being able to sneak up behind you but it had one fatal flaw.

It didn't take into account an attack from above.

It was from this direction the next attack came as a woman clad almost completely in metal dropped from above to land on the table behind each of the vampires. The only way the vamps sensed her arrival was the displacement of air that heralded her arrival but that just allowed her to see their faces before the end. Rising from the crouched position she had landed in she placed her hands together almost in prayer before forming a series of seals symbolizing the animals in the Chinese Zodiac. When she was finished some of the vamps were reaching for her in order to tear her limb from limb while the rest were trying to put as much distance between themselves and the woman as possible. Neither got the chance for as the woman completed the final seal she said something under her breath and with the final syllable of the final word everything within thirty feet in all directions became enveloped in a maelstrom of electric energy. It only lasted ten seconds but that was all it took to reduce both the vampires and the table the woman had been standing on to ash.

Now while some vampires would think that even an insane demon would be worried about anyone or anything that could dispatch ten vampire minions Drusilla was actually pleased at the current situation. She had her loopy grin on full blast and was barely restraining a fit of giggling that was growing within her.

"Well done children! Mummy is so happy." , Drusilla said while clapping her hands together, "Come on out! Mummy has a job for her children."

The woman in metal merely went down on one knee in front of the mad female vampire whereas the others made slightly showier entrances. The first was a fairly muscular man who stood without a shirt and had metal gauntlets on his hands up to but not past the elbow. He wore leather pants that had a slightly glossy and almost metallic sheen to them but were definitely made of cloth. He was bald as well as almost completely hairless as well in every visible area from eyebrows to chest hair to the hair on the back of your arms. For the most part his face was expressionless, the epitome of professionalism, but if one looked into his eyes you could see an almost eternal look of dissatisfaction. What it was he could be dissatisfied about was anyone's guess but what they saw in the dark spots of his eyes was reason enough for most people to look away.

The second was slightly more sickening in appearance as looked like a half dead corpse already with blackened splotches all around the skin that was visible. He was clad in traditional armor on his chest but his arms were bare for the most part with only half his forearms covered as they were wrapped in the thin wiring. His pants were baggier but it was clear that beneath the cloth his legs were much thinner than would be normal for someone wearing pants of that size. The hair on his head was sparse and was made up of patches at random intervals on his head. Thus it was hard to tell if he was an old man or merely a badly burned and sick young man based on what could be made out of his body. Still he carried an air of death about him and if one were to stand near him a static charge in the air could be felt as well as an unknown discomfort that most were eager to avoid.

All in all these three were some of the most unusual and intimidating killers ever to come to Sunnydale in a long time. Which of course meant that they met with Drusilla's immediate approval.

"We are going to have so much fun! However first the bad boy must be taught a lesson." Drusilla said as an odd energy filled her eyes and a focus she had never before known came over her.

She now had only one mission in this town and she would not be satisfied with anything other than total victory. After all Daddy had taught her well how one should go about taking revenge on one's enemies and she would do him proud.

Abandoned Science Building , Evening 

"KATON HOUSENKA NO JUTSU!" Xander declared as he brought his right hand up to his mouth.

Trying to control his chakra better he fired off five fireballs at the targets he set up intending to hit each one dead center without knocking them off the table. He had pretty much put trying to perform the more advanced techniques on the shelf for the time being and was trying to improve his precision and control. That was the point of this exercise. Any genin could will a technique to manifest but the results were often wild, uncontrolled and undisciplined. However to be able to hit one of these cans without destroying it or knocking it off the table took a level of control and precision that took a lot of practice. So far he could hit three of the five targets without knocking them off the table but the remaining two often wound up melted pieces of scrap metal. Still if this could help him control his chakra use more precisely he wouldn't waste so much trying to force some techniques to work. This would allow him to train longer and perhaps advance a bit further in his training by learning a few new techniques. Still until he managed to get a perfect score with these targets he would stay with this exercise and strive to do the best he could.

There was another area of being a ninja that he wanted to do better at but it was also one he could only train to a limited degree at. While he showed potential to be able to perform genjitsu and ninjutsu he had no means to improve his taijutsu or hand-to-hand combat skills. He was doing weights and cardio trainings as well as trying to improve his flexibility but when you were training alone there was only so much you could do. For some forms of training you needed a partner or teacher of some kind and the secrecy that he was certain he needed for his training made finding a sparring partner impossible. The only person who might be able to help in his training was his mother and if he was right about her being deep undercover then he had to steer clear of her. With no other ninja from any of the hidden villages much less one from Konoha he had only the knowledge he gained from Halloween to guide him. Still there were some good points to having this info in his head and he had found that out earlier today when filling out that career placement questions. There were quite a few of them that he answered differently had he never been made a ninja for one night. He would have chosen the easy answers, the ones that wouldn't put him at the bottom of the barrel job-wise but wouldn't put him in the spotlight either. Now though, knowing what he was capable of as a ninja, he knew he could do better and so he didn't want that potential to go to waste. Some might have discounted his prowess and abilities as a ninja that night as something he couldn't have done without Janus giving him a boost. That might have been the case if everything he had worn that night had come from Ethan's costume store but he had gotten the forehead protector from his mother. He knew it was that piece of cloth and metal that had given him the more specific memories of Konoha than the uniform itself. After all with only a few changes in terms of color and size the uniform he wore could have been found in just about any of the hidden villages. That told him that becoming as good as he was that night was possible if he wanted it badly enough.

_If it can make me a real player here on the Hellmouth it'll be worth it. _Xander thought as he set up another five cans on the table.

For an hour straight he did the same exercise and while the progress was small he did manage to go from three out of five to four out of five. He stood there for a moment trying to decide whether or not to call it a night or not but given that it was a school night and the results of the career test would be posted tomorrow it was probably better to turn in early. Putting the destroyed cans into a box and picking his shuriken, kunai and throwing needles into one of the cabinets. He didn't want to make it too obvious that there was someone practicing in here since it might inspire them to stake the place out. He didn't even want to think what kind of complications he'd have to deal with if either demons or humans found out about what he was doing here. The demons would probably try and kill him just to make sure that they didn't have something other than the Slayer to worry about. If a human found out they would either sell the info to the demons or they would start gossiping about it and that would get back to the gang in no time flat. That would only make things worse as G-Man would probably get on the horn to the Watchers Council in England or at least mention it in a report. Even if they didn't put too big a priority on it a standard background check on his family might lead them to contact some of the hidden villages and that would only make trouble for his mom. The memories he retained from Halloween weren't all that specific about what sort of punishment a ninja could look forward to if their cover was broken but it couldn't be pleasant.

Once every piece of equipment and debris was cleaned up from his training he slipped out the window but not before putting his own special security system in place. It wasn't anything fancy but it would let him know if anyone had been in that room while he was away. All he did was hook a piece of string onto a nail that was sticking out of the window frame and then tie the other end to a stake he had stuck in the ground a short distance away. The length of the string was such that no one would think it was tied to anything until they tried to open the window and that would lead to the stake being pulled out. No doubt the intruder or intruders would try and stick the stake back into the ground to make it look like nothing had happened but he'd be able to tell. Given how low tech it was he doubted anyone would think anything of it and no one would immediately think of a ninja being there from the string and stake alone.

_I just hope that mom and dad are asleep when I get in or I'll have to come up with an excuse pretty quickly._ , Xander thought as he began the long trek back to the Harris Household, _It would have to be one that doesn't require them to call Buffy or Willow's parents for confirmation and yet seem perfectly reasonable at the same time. Fortunately after so many research parties and the times I got in trouble coming up with one on the way home shouldn't be too hard at all._

**__**

Sunnydale High School, Next Day, Lunch Time 

_Why am I doing this again?_ Xander asked himself as he tried to move to the front of the mob that was gathered around the results of the career placement test.

It had been at the back of his mind all morning and almost got his history teacher mad at him but fortunately he had actually studied the subject being discussed. Mr. Mason looked absolutely priceless when Xander told him the right answer to the question he asked. It had gotten a few laughs from the others in the class but the teacher had recovered by going after those people and making them look foolish in the extreme. Now that he could finally check the results he wasn't sure he wanted to. After all while he knew he wasn't going to let the test dictate the course of his life it would bother him if he looked and saw that he was best suited to some stupid job like a prison guard. Cordelia was already looking down the list to find her name and job match but personally the only job he thought she was fit for was either army drill sergeant or dominatrix. After she was the undisputed queen of putting people down and could certainly yell at people loud enough. Plus in his opinion she would look kinda hot in a leather outfit with a whip in one hand. Not that he was into that sort of thing of course. Only vamps and serious head jobs mixed pain with pleasure or in some cases mixed the two up.

"Oh, here I am. 'Personal shopper or motivational speaker.' Neato!" Cordelia remarked sarcastically as she obviously didn't get the job prediction she wanted.

"Motivational speaker? On what? Ten ways to a more annoying you?" Xander asked sarcastically given that he thought that motivating people was the one thing Queen C couldn't do.

"Oh, what about you? You're..." Cordelia said in response as she looked down the list to find his name.

Unfortunately when she did the rich girl broke into a fit of giggles before walking away and Xander just knew that she would tell her groupies so they could rub it in later. Having new incentive to find out what job he rated he scrolled down the list with his eyes until he found his last name than panned across until he found the job title he had been given. What he saw didn't match Cordelia's response of giggles and disbelief. According to the career placement test he was best suit to be a soldier. While that wasn't a standard job for these tests it was a respectable occupation and with a little work he could be good at it. Apparently Queen C found the idea of him being a soldier of any kind laughable in the extreme and while that might have been so of his pre-Halloween self it fit perfectly with who he was now. Still it kinda bugged him that someone he knew, albeit reluctantly, would find it that ridiculous for him to be suited to fight for the USA. He'd tell Buffy and the others and see what their response would be just to have something to compare Cordelia's response to.

He found them in the hallways and managed to catch the tail end of the conversation they were having.

"Angel ice-skating." Willow said in a way that implied she thought the concept was weird.

"I know. Two worlds collide." Buffy said in agreement with her redheaded friend but if he wasn't mistaken it looked like she was happy with the combination.

_Stupid brooding corpse! He just had to use her one weakness to his advantage!_ Xander thought as he recalled Buffy mentioning once that she loved to ice skate.

Just when he thought that he might actually had a chance with the Slayer now that he was becoming a warrior himself. After all he figured that the only difference between him and Deadboy was that the vamp could fight on equal footing with Buffy and he couldn't. He had hoped that after a few more weeks of training and practicing he might be able to slowly show improvement on patrols with her and gain her respect as a warrior. From there he could make a few daring and heroic rescues and that would open up the door to asking Buffy out on an official date. If Deadboy was going to take her skating though it was going to be next to impossible to get on Buff's good side for at least three months. Still Buffy was a girl worth fighting for so he was willing to wait until a better chance to woo her appeared. Until then he should see what they think about the results of his job placement test.

"Wouldn't you two say you know me about as well as anyone else? Maybe even better than I know myself?" Xander asked with a bit of unease that comes normally to those that did not know how a person or persons were going to respond.

"What's this about?" Willow asked a bit confused at the question.

"When you look at me, do you think 'soldier'?" Xander asked with all due seriousness.

The response they gave him, giggling, hurt him more than he let on. He tried to defend them by saying that they didn't know the changes he had gone under since Halloween. They didn't know that right now he could probably kick Bruce Lee or Steven Segal's butt if he wanted to. Still he couldn't help but feel a bit bitter at them for how little they thought of him.

"Um, crossing guard, maybe, but soldier?" Buffy thought as she got her giggling under control.

"They just put up the assignments for the career fair, and according to my test results I can look forward to being gainfully employed in the American armed forces." He said making it clear that he thought that the test accurately foretold his future.

"Well, at least you'll be able to see the world." Buffy said with renewed giggles at his apparent pride in his predicted occupation.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha! Laugh now, missy, they assigned you to the booth for law enforcement professionals." Xander said as he told the Slayer what had been next to her name on the list.

"As in police?" Buffy asked with a look on her face like some demon had just hit her upside the head with a stone pillar.

"As in polyester, doughnuts and brutality." Xander said mockingly as he was definitely enjoying getting back at her for that crack about being a solider.

Buffy whined just like a sad puppy at that thought even though she knew that he was just bringing up the parts that were most laughable about being a cop. There was more to being a cop than what he had said and it was a respectable position despite the incompetence of the local P.D.

"But there are donuts!" Willow said with a smile trying to show Buffy the silver lining to her dark cloud of law enforcement.

"Well, I'll just jump off that bridge when I come to it." Buffy said with further whining as though she was actually contemplating jumping off a bridge if law enforcement was indeed her future.

At this moment something caught her attention and the rest of them looked to see Giles walking towards the library with a large stack of books in his arms.

"First I have to deal with Giles. He's on this Tony Robbins hyper-efficiency kick. Expects me to check in every day after homeroom." , Buffy said as she decided to get it over with and walked after Giles, "Police?"

Xander didn't understand why Buffy was so surprised at being given the nod for a future in law enforcement. After all isn't that what she pretty much did as the Slayer every night? She went out and fought the good fight against the murderous monsters and the deviant demons as though it was her duty and took great satisfaction in a job well done. He actually couldn't think of another job that she was better suited for and the only thing she probably wouldn't enjoy would be the regulations and paperwork. He almost laughed at the images his mind produced of her sitting at a desk drinking coffee and trying to write up a report that her C.O would accept. Given how the Slayer regularly butchered the English language it would take some serious practice and force of will to write down something even remotely similar to proper English. Still at least as a cop she would be getting paid for the nights of fighting the good fight rather than just being forced to accept a 'good job Buffy' from the Watchers Council.

He was about to follow Buffy in order to give her emotional support in what was most certainly going to be a painful experience but was stopped by Willow's hand.

"You didn't check to see which seminar I was assigned to, did you?" Willow asked with a little bit of concern.

"I did, and you weren't." Xander answered honestly.

He was sure that there was some kind of mix up or something. Willow was one of the most brilliant students in the school with the potential to be a Nobel Prize winner as far as he was concerned. After all she was the person he went to when he needed help with his schoolwork and other problems. The faculty must have gotten the paperwork messed up because there was no way they would exclude one of their brightest students from this chance at advancement.

"But I handed in my test! I used a number two pencil!" Willow said and Xander could tell that if he didn't say something quick she was going to give herself a heart attack.

"Then I guess you musta passed." Xander said with the utmost confidence since Willow failing a test was like the sun not rising.

"It's not the kinda test you pass or fail." Willow said seriously apparently not liking the fact that he was making light of something she took so seriously.

"Your name wasn't up there, Will." Xander said trying to convey with his face that he would be there for her and that he was sure it would work out in the end.

"Well I'm not going to stand for this! I'm going to go find the teacher in charge and demand to know why my name isn't on there like everyone else!" Willow said with firm determination and resolve.

Then before he could do anything she walked away no doubt in the direction of the teacher's lounge or maybe Principal Snyder's office. He thought about going along to lend moral support but figured that since he wasn't any good at intimidation and Snyder didn't like him to begin with Willow was better off handling the troll herself. He in the mean time would spend what time he had before the next class trying to devise some new training exercises to help further his development towards the title of Jounin. He was making progress on his own but he knew that if he was going to reach a wall where his current exercises wouldn't be enough. Without other ninja of similar rank to test himself against he would have no way of growing past a certain level of skill. It was like you could only practice playing hoops for so long before you need to find someone to play against. No mere imaginary opponent or scenario could match up to actually fighting someone unknown. He supposed that he could go and try and join one of the martial arts schools that were in Sunnydale but unfortunately that was a little public given his situation. Too many people would see him in the class and approaching the building on the streets making it only a matter of time before his new 'skills' became common knowledge. His mother wouldn't like that one bit and it would only cause problems for her cover story if he used any techniques from Konoha here in Sunnydale. Even using one move reflexively like he no 'like he' would be trouble and perhaps put an end to her mission here right away. What that would wind up meaning for him he wasn't quite sure but hopefully it would just mean he would have to move out and get a place of his own sooner than he had intended. However it also meant that he would likely never see his mother again and that was something he was not prepared to see happen.

If someone had asked him two months ago how he would react to his mother being forced to leave Sunnydale and leaving him behind he would say that he would be doing the dance of joy while saying 'one down and one to go'. After all two months ago he thought that his mother was no better than his father in that she was a weak and pathetic drunk who lacked the backbone to deal with their problems with something other than drinking. As far as he had been concerned if they were both shipped off to prison or something he wouldn't have shed a tear or even bothered to write them other than once to rub their imprisonment in their faces. Now though, now that he knew what his mother really was and that her behavior since his birth was just following orders from her village. It didn't make the pain and misery he suffered any less terrible but he could forgive her if it was for a good cause. If only he knew what her mission was and what she was doing staying in Sunnyhell for so long he could put his uncertainty about her to rest. Maybe he could even persuade her to let him help in some way but until he came up with some sort of safe way to tell her what he knew he was forced to leave things where they were. He just hoped that if she ever found herself in a bind she wouldn't hesitate to come to him for help because as far as he was concerned she had only to ask for it.

_It's kinda fun having a parent you can actually be proud of and respect._ Xander thought to himself as he decided to get something to eat before his next class started.

Night Time, Sunnydale 

**__**

_I should just have the local liquor store deliver to our front door with all that Tony drinks!_ Jessica thought grumpily to herself as she left the local booze joint with the fat slob's order.

No sooner had she gotten home from work that day then Tony had told her to go to the store and get him three six packs of his favorite beer. She had asked what had happened to the beer she had bought two days ago but when she looked into the living room the empty cans on the floor answered her question. She had spent the entire drive there wondering how the man could stand up right or even talk coherently with all the alcohol he knocked back. His problem with booze was one of the reasons he couldn't hold a job longer than three months and why she always managed to find his pink slip in the mail. Most of the businesses and managers in town already knew what type of man Tony Harris was and usually only hired when they needed a fall guy for some scam. Tony never went to prison or jail though but that was more because the businesses wanted to keep him around in case of repeat problems. In the end though it always meant that she was responsible for providing the lion's share of the family's revenue and half of it was spent funding that man's problem. It was part of the reason why she could only occasionally get Alex anything new or nice instead of just some used items from the local thrift store. It was one of the reasons why he had those awful shirts in his closet. She couldn't afford to cloth him in the latest fashion or even in something relatively new from the mainstream clothes stores. Still she did what she could to make sure that he had the comforts and precious things that really mattered even though Alex never knew it. It was those things that made or broke a person and from what she could tell her son was growing up to be a fine man. He would be the one to have the loving wife and two point three kids along with a stable job that he enjoyed. Not like her. She had made this prison for herself and her son. Had chosen the identity that would be hers until the day she died in order to safeguard the most precious thing in her life, her son.

Once she reached the car she fished around for a moment for her keys but then froze as a familiar but nearly forgotten feeling crept up her spine. It was a feeling that she had experienced on more than one occasion both here in Sunnydale and back in her native land. She was being watched by an unknown number of people and she had the distinct impression that they did not have benign intentions towards her. The only question was whether they were vampires, demons or her worst nightmare come to pass at long last. Despite the odds she was optimistic and believed that the odds were greater that it was one of the local demonic entities of this town. After all she had done a competent job at hypnotizing that man Ethan Rayne Halloween night so he could not have brought them here or let them know that there was a sharingan user here. No it was far more likely that some vamps were considering whether not to give the blood and booze special a try. Once she had the keys to the car she pressed the button on it to automatically unlock the car and prepared to open the door when suddenly she was lifted into the air by a painful orange light and deposited none too carefully on the ground.

For a few moments her mind was a haze of incoherency and confusion but as her senses returned to her she looked in front of her and saw the remains of her car shattered and aflame. This was a turn of events that not even she could have anticipated for while there were numerous deaths and disappearances in this town car bombings were unheard of. Well at least for everyday civilians but it was a possibility if you worked for Mayor Wilkens and didn't stay on the man's good side. However since she was of the former rather than latter it didn't make sense for someone to want to kill her in such a loud manner. What disturbed her though was that she had only been in the store fifteen minutes and the entire front of the store was clear glass. She had an almost entirely clear view of the car the entire time and while she had not kept serious tabs on it while she filled Tony's order it was a feat of some skill to get near it without her seeing them. Who ever was responsible and for whatever the reason someone had taken the time to notice her and by proxy perhaps her family. Whether they were merely a loose end or detail to be handled or because somehow she had made an enemy of someone was irrelevant at this point. She was in danger and so was her family. That alone was enough to make her consider putting her escape plan into action regardless of the fact that Alex hadn't exhibited any ninja-like behavior. All she cared about was the safety of her son and of herself with her priorities happening in that particular order.

She would stay here in the parking lot until the police arrived if only to avoid the bother of being charged with leaving the scene of a crime. Once that hassle was over and done with she would go home and begin to set things in motion for her and Alex to disappear from Sunnydale and relocate to Cleveland. As for Tony … well … the slob could fend for himself for once and if he wound up a bum on the street well she wouldn't shed any tears.

_I just hope that Alex will forgive me for this one day. _Jessica thought as she watched the symbol of her life here burn away.

Rooftop, A Short Distance Away, Same Time 

"You messed up Manzo. She's still alive." Said the metal clad woman as she looked down at the target her comrade was supposed to have killed.

She had been standing there ever since they had been able to pin down the mother of one of their targets to a specific location. On this rooftop she had stood while a member of her team went down and rigged an explosive tag to the woman's car. The plan had been for one Jessica Harris to get into her car and when she put the key into the ignition and turned it the tag would detonate killing her instantly. Needless to say when the tag exploded while Mrs. Harris was outside of the car and most likely only gave her a mild concussion it was disappointing.

"So what Chiyo! Our client said she wanted us to terrorize this Harris boy before moving in for the kill!" , Manzo said sharply proving he did not take criticism well, "She didn't say that his momma had to die. Better for her to go running home to her brat with tales of someone wanting her dead than being a corpse."

"Hehehehe! You just don't want to admit you screwed up Manzo!" said the wizened man looking down gleefully at the flaming car down below them.

"I'll show you screwed Taji!" Manzo said angrily as he began to form some hand seals.

"QUIET! Both of you! We have been hired to do a job and the Order does not smile upon failure." , Chiyo said as she stared down both of her comrades with her electric blue eyes, "I will not have you bring about this assignment's ruin just because you could not get along. One more bout of bickering like this and I will report you to the oversight committee upon our return."

This rendered them silent almost immediately and any hostility they had once shown towards one another vanished beneath a mask of professionalism. No sane member of the Order ever wanted to anger the members of that committee and even a few of those who were insane did their best to behave rather than face them. This group was just a step below the ruling body of the Order and they were in charge of handling the bureaucracy of it all. It also was the group that passed along reports and assessments on to the ruling body. This meant that if one wanted to look good in the eyes of the top brass it meant putting a good show on for the oversight committee. While it was true that both Manzo and Taji could protest anything Chiyo mentioned in her report the pencil pushers were far more likely to believe a Jounin like her than two chuunin like them. Not that ninja ranks from their former village meant anything to exiles like them but apparently there were enough among the Order who did value them to defer to Chiyo's judgment.

"Now that we have given the first sign of our presence our target will most certainly attempt to ascertain who is responsible. There is little evidence left behind by your failure Manzo to clearly implicate us and it is doubtful that there is anyone in this town who could identify the remains of a explosive tag." , Chiyo said walking away from the edge of the roof they were on, "However it does present us with an opportunity to lure our target into a trap if the right information is left for him to find. The two of you will visit the local hovels and hang outs where the lowly worms gather and pass on the appropriate information. Do not use your true forms but rather transform into something more appropriate for this locale."

"What will you do while we're mingling with these worms?" Manzo asked with barely restrained animosity.

"I will be preparing the final resting place for our mysterious Mr. Harris so as to make his end as perfectly lethal as possible." Chiyo said somewhat enigmatically as she vanished in a puff of smoke.

Two Hours Later, Harris Household 

Xander was in the kitchen trying to fix an evening meal when his mother walked in the door and the sight of her condition almost made him drop the plate he had been holding. There were smudges of dirt on her jacket and there was a sizeable tear in her skirt. When combined with the nasty gash on her forehead with some stitches keeping it shut and it looked like she had been mugged. However mugged in Sunnydale generally meant vampires but he could see no bandage on her neck and he knew she had not been turned over the last couple days so her appearance was something of a mystery. If not a vampire then what could have attacked her and how hard would it be for him to find and kill.

"Mom? What happened?" Xander asked as he placed his plate of food down on the counter and rushed to his mother's side.

"Nothing. Just had a little problem with the car." , Jessica Harris replied as she sat down in a chair next to the dining room table, "It seems there was a gas leak and when I unlocked the car it set off a spark and blew the whole thing."

The Zeppo didn't buy that for a second but he didn't want to worry his mother by letting her know that perhaps something a little more serious was afoot in Sunnydale. However trouble usually zeroed in on Buffy rather than him so why had his mother been targeted. The only noticeable thing he had done that might have drawn attention to him and his family had been last Halloween with his little stint as a ninja of Konoha. Maybe some family member of the demons he cooked was gunning for revenge or if worse came to worse maybe that psycho-vamp Drusilla looking to pay him back for Spike. In any case he had to put an end to it quickly before things got too far out of hand for him to handle it by himself. More importantly he had to deal with it before Buffy and the gang found out about it. He knew that they would have nothing but the best of intentions but investigating why someone would be so interested in him and his family would put a very costly spotlight on them. Giles would make inquiries with the Council and Buffy would pound every demon she could get her hands on for information as to why they were paying so much attention to the Harris family. This would cause no end of trouble for his mother with the ninja from Konoha and Hokage-sama. After all he was still certain that his mother was on some super under cover mission for some client and was probably given orders to maintain her cover at any cost. Any undue attention paid to the Harris family ran the risk of them finding out the truth about one Jessica Harris and blowing her cover sky high.

_That means finding the ones responsible and putting them in the ground quick and before things progress too far. _Xander thought as he continued to console his mother and try to help her feel better.

Sunnydale High School, The Next Day, Afternoon 

_Well now I am officially worried!_ Xander thought to himself as he walked down the halls towards the student lounge where the various job representatives had set up their booths.

He had been out half the night asking around the various lowlifes and demonic beings in this town if there were any new players in town or if someone had put a contract or something out on Jessica Harris. He had gone out in disguise of course to make sure that the 'people' he spoke to would be intimidated enough by what they didn't know about him to talk. Of course his selective use of a dagger might have had something to do with it but in the end the results had been the same. There was gossip in the demon underworld that there were some 'phantom people' in town and that they were mercenaries of some kind. No word yet on where they could be found or who had commissioned the hit on his mother. It wasn't that he hadn't pressed the no 'the' hard enough for information or that they might be lying to him because he was certain they had told him everything they knew. Still it was something and there only so many places in town where mercenaries like that could hide without being seen by someone and reported to the police. That is assuming of course that they were of the bloodthirsty sort and not professionals who were adept at not drawing attention to their position. If they were really good and really professional at what they did then his mom would have no choice but to use the training she received in Konoha to defend herself cover be damned. Still he would see if he could handle it first before he involved his mother and forced her to screw up her assignment.

For the moment though he had to report to the U.S Army booth and hear the representative's routine through although it would probably be edited and shaped to appeal to new recruits. He knew enough from fighting the good fight on the Hellmouth and from his fictional memories as a Jounin of Konoha that war wasn't anywhere near as glamorous as it was made out to be in the movies or on TV. Still it would be something he could become good at combined with his ninja training would make him a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Not that he would be blatantly using the jutsus on the battlefield of course. He wasn't crazy enough to do something that could get the Hunter-nins of Konoha to come after him. After all one instance of military personnel seeing him use the replacement technique or transforming into someone else and they would treat him like their prized test subject. They would do anything they felt they had to in order to find out how he had done what he had done and if they could find a way to make it so that all their soldiers could do it. Needless to say this had to be avoided because there was no way he was letting anyone strap him to cold and uncomfortable metal table while they used Mr. Happy Scalpel to cut him up. Still the least he could do was go and see what this representative had to say and then make his decision as to whether or not he wanted to serve his country.

He saw Willow coming in from the hallway opposite him and saw that she was still a bit bummed about not being on the list along with everyone else. Not liking seeing such a look on his bestest bud's face he decided to do his duty and try to cheer her up somewhat.

Walking up to her he said "Willow! What are you doing here? Fly! Be free, little bird, you defy category!"

"I'm looking for Buffy." Willow said in reply to his question of why she was here.

"Oh, she went with Giles about an hour ago. Some kind of field trip deal." Xander said having seen them earlier in the day.

"If she doesn't get back soon, Snyder's really..." , Willow began to say but immediately changed direction thought-wise when she saw something behind him, "...done a great job with the fair this year, hasn't he, Xander?"

"Principal Snyder! Great career fair, sir! Really! In fact, I'm so inspired by your leadership, I'm thinking principal school. I wanna walk in your shoes. Not your actual shoes, of course, because you're a tiny person. Not tiny in the small sense, of course. Okay, I'm done now." Xander said trying to copy Willow's false cheer at seeing Snyder but eventually to stop while he was ahead before he jammed his foot too far down his throat.

"Where is she?" Snyder asked with his usual 'cheer' and 'optimistic thinking'.

"Who?" Willow said no doubt trying to protect her friend by action dumb.

"You know who." Snyder stated not fooled one bit by the dumb act coming from one of the school's brightest students.

"You mean Buffy?" , Willow asked making a show of looking around the room, I just saw her..."

"And don't feed me that 'I just saw her a minute ago, she's around here somewhere' story." Snyder said cutting the redhead off sharply as he clearly didn't want to hear their efforts to cover for their friend.

"But I did... just see her a minute ago, and she is... around here somewhere!" Willow said insistently trying to sound completely honest and truthful.

"For what it's worth..." Xander began saying trying to act as reinforcements for his friend.

"It's worth nothing, Harris. Whatever comes out of your mouth is a meaningless waste of breath. An airborne toxic event." Snyder said stopping the Zeppo's counter offensive in its tracks.

"Well, I'm glad you feel comfortable enough to be so honest with me. And I can only hope that one day I'm in the position to be that honest with you." Xander said being entirely honest and hoping one day he could give this troll a piece of his mind.

"Fascinating." Snyder said before he walked off no doubt to terrorize some other student.

"Well, love to stay and chat, but I got an appointment with the petty officer on standard operating procedure. Ciao." Xander said seeing two people in suits approaching Willow from behind.

They didn't look like ye old Men in Black or government agents so he wasn't immediately worried about them trying anything evil or villain-like. Besides which it was daytime and most nasties that called Sunnydale home preferred to wait until it was night outside before doing anything. Besides with this many witnesses around they would have to get her outside before they could make her vanish and he would step in long before then. After all if these guys really were dirty he'd have no worries or regrets over beating them silly and showing them a few choice Konoha moves.

The Next Day , Sunnydale High School , Library 

"So G-Man is there any special reason why you called this meeting or do you just want some people to practice your dire prophecy speech on?" Xander said laying back

"I'm afraid we may have something considerably more tangible than a prophecy and perhaps more dangerous." Giles replied as he removed his glasses to clean them.

"More dangerous than a prophecy? Giles you do realize that the last prophecy we faced had me dying and the Master opening the Hellmouth right?" Buffy asked looking at her Watcher with some concern and disbelief.

This was pretty much the common feeling among the rest of the Scooby gang as they had all gotten used to the craziness of the Hellmouth and Rupert Giles' reactions to it. When the glasses came off and he used his handkerchief to clean it usually meant something big was coming or already here. Given how soon after his mother had been killed and the gossip he had managed to come across about the new players he had a bad feeling his personal investigation was about to become a lot less personal.

"Yes. I have received word from some friends in the Council that a contract has been put out on one of us and that it has been picked up by the Order of Teraka." Giles said in a voice that told them how dire the situation was.

"The Order of what?" Buffy asked with some confusion as to what they were dealing with this time.

"Contract?" Willow said on the verge of panicking.

"The Order of Teraka is a society of deadly assassins dating back to King Solomon." Giles explained with almost an air of distraction as his mind was probably going over everything he knew about the Order looking for any way to safety he could find.

"And didn't they beat the Elks this year in the Sunnydale adult bowling league championships?" Xander said with moderate levity as he tried to make light of this league of assassins.

If Buffy took this group too seriously she would work all the harder to find them and would probably find out that it was his mother who was the specified target of the mentioned contract. That would only complicate his efforts to find these killers and finish them off before they could complete their mission of killing his mother. He would have to reveal to them that he had been training to become a Jounin level ninja and had been planning to take a more physical role in the nightly slaying. Once the truth was out it was only a matter of time before his mother was recalled to Konoha or even killed on the spot to make sure that the secret techniques and teachings of the village remained a mystery. He had to wrap this up quickly or at least try and make Buffy and company believe wholeheartedly that it was the Slayer who was the target and not Jessica Harris.

"Their credo is to sow discord and kill the unwary." Giles said attempting to return this discussion to a state of seriousness.

"Bowling is a vicious game." Xander stated resisting the learned Watcher's efforts while redoubling his own.

"That's enough, Xander!" Giles all but yelled at the Zeppo as the situation clearly had the man worried enough that his tolerance for jokes and levity was gone.

Dropping his head in shame right on cue it had the desired effect as Giles took on a look of regret at the sight.

"Sorry. It's just not the time for jokes. I need to think." Giles said as he placed his glasses back on his face.

"Well the first thing we have to do is find out who they want dead and get them somewhere safe." , Buffy said as she looked to Giles as always for guidance, "Are you sure your contacts didn't say anything about who these baddies wanted dead?"

"No I am afraid not. However he did mention that those assassins that were sent rank fairly high in the Order and have never failed to carry out their assigned mission." , Giles replied with his optimism waning as he recalled what his friend had told him, "Not the most comforting of information as you can see."

"So what? I'll get the pleasure of ruining their perfect record. It's not like I haven't dealt with big bads before Giles." Buffy said with confidence that she could handle whatever came her way.

"They're a breed apart, Buffy. U-unlike vampires they have no earthly desires, but to collect their bounty. They find a target, and, uh... they eliminate it." , Giles stated as he tried to impress upon his charge the seriousness of the situation, "You can kill as many of them as you like, it won't make any difference. Where there's one, there will be another, and another. They won't stop coming until the job is done."

"Well, isn't that a cheery thought?" Xander muttered as he found that his little problem just became a plausibly unending problem.

"I will attempt to find a way out of this mess. Perhaps by finding whomever commissioned this assassination we might be able to persuade him or her to cancel the contract." Giles said as he began to move towards his office.

"Given the number of demons and vamps Buffy's managed to tick off I wouldn't hold my breath Giles. Things with horns and glowing eyes tend to hold grudges." Xander said as he didn't see someone like the local vamps or demons willing to do anything to stand in the way of someone killing her.

Xander's optimism was waning quickly as the information that Giles had just related to the gang. If this Teraka group really was as relentless as the Watcher was making them out to be then he had two choices as to how to deal with this situation. He could either confront his mother and let her know that she had a major problem on her hands and needed to call in some help or he could tackle the problem by himself in the hopes that he could make killing Jessica Harris too expensive to keep up. After all unless the person who put out the contract had bottomless pockets of cash and a lot of time on their hands they would call off the contract once the Tarakens' fee went past what they could afford. While he wasn't sure how his newbie ninja of Konoha skills would stack up against trained killers he was willing to try his luck for his mother's sake. He would only risk letting his mom in on the truth if these guys wound up being more than he could handle. He felt he owed her for turning out to be a mother he could respect rather than just a female version of Tony Harris. He knew that the new discovery didn't make up for the mistakes she made in the past but it was easier to forgive her knowing she had done it for a good reason rather than a bad ones.

_Tonight your killers for hire are going to go from being the hunters to the hunted!_ Xander thought with a firm determination that would have done Buffy the Vampire Slayer proud.

Rooftop of the Town Theatre, Night Time 

_C'mon you mercs! Where are you?_ Xander thought to himself as he looked down at the people below before examining the nearby rooftops.

He had snuck out of the house as soon as he could without attracting his mother's attention and had swiftly made his way to the abandoned science building to pick up a few things. One had been the flack suit and mask he had worn on Halloween around three weeks ago that started him on his new path in life. The jacket would hopefully provide him some protection against blades and needles while at the same time giving him a way to carry his own weapons. The mask was just to make sure that he couldn't be identified by these assassins as it might provoke them into a frontal assault on his mother sooner rather than later. If they couldn't identify him they just might mistake him for a ninja from one of the hidden villages or an exile leaving a nice dead end for them to follow. He had used the weapons Ethan Rayne had provided to make molds in order to fashion new ones. After all he couldn't expect to be able to retrieve every weapon he used so he had to devise his own method for replacing them. So when he had left his own personal training area he had gone out well armed and hopefully prepared enough to handle whatever came up.

With that in mind he had begun a search of the more remote and less frequented areas of Sunnydale as they would provide the best places to set up base. Assassins by their very nature preferred places where their privacy could be assured and they could focus on their task. For the ninja of Konoha it was the same way for the most part. Most times when they were hired their clients offered them a place to spend the night before accomplishing the mission. Sometimes it was a place of abundant splendor while other times it was buildings that should have been condemned years ago. Mixing the remoteness of the location with an operative's natural ability to hide made them almost impossible to detect before they wanted to make their presence known. He supposed that given the bakas that were the Sunnydale police department any members of the Order of Teraka who came to town wouldn't have to worry about hiding. They could probably kill someone in broad daylight and the police would just chalk it up to gang members on PCP like they always did. He couldn't afford to second guess himself and begin worrying about his choices. He had to stay focused and finish combing the city for a sign of his quarry and if the opportunity presented itself he would take one of the assassins out.

_Better get on with it then._ Xander thought as he leapt across the distance between the theatre's roof and the building across the street from it.

He had divided the town into sectors and been combing them last night and had continued this night leaving two thirds still unexamined. He hoped to reduce that to two thirds down to one third by the end of the night leaving anything left for tomorrow night. With a little luck he would find them tonight and find a way to send them packing with little or no prompting. After all while the bad guys that came here certainly had their share of neat tricks and moves to the best of his knowledge the techniques used by the hidden villages were unique. Hopefully that would give him an edge against these Taraken mercenaries allowing him to take them out hard and fast. If he let the fight drag on for any serious length of time either he would make a mistake or they would use their superior experience to turn him into a greasy teenage smear on the ground. He still hadn't managed to build up his chakra stamina up very far and would tire sooner rather than later if he wound up being forced to use jutsus. It was completely rotten timing for these guys to show up now before he had managed to really get the hang of this ninja mojo he had come to inherit from both his mother and the spell on Halloween night. If they had just been nice enough to wait a year or so before coming here to start trouble he was sure he could have reached the level of chuunin by then. Maybe even managed to make it halfway to Jounin if he really pushed it and didn't have to worry about too many late night save-the-world-from-the-forces-of-evil sessions with the gang. Still his best right now would have to be good enough because he doubted he could just say 'bad guys, bad guys go away and come again another day' and make them leave. He just hoped that he wouldn't wind up having ouchie regrets later tonight or he might just do what the smart people of Sunnydale did when they learned the truth of this town.

Leave and never come back.

He was just passing a construction site where a new public town library was supposed to be in a couple of months when he thought his eyes caught a flicker of movement in the shadows between support beams. Barely touching down on the roof he had been heading for he immediately executed a back flip to the roof of the building he just left. Barely managing that maneuver he took a few moments to steady himself before walking to the edge of the roof that faced the construction site. There was your standard wooden fence around the site with barbed wire lining the top to keep out intruders. Inside the fenced off area there were scattered pieces of machinery and equipment but as far as he could tell it was deserted. The ninja in him though knew that looks could be deceiving and that a perfectly abandoned looking area could in fact represent a trap waiting to be sprung. He knew it was only a moment that he saw the movement and it could have been a trick of the light or his imagination but it wasn't like he had a better lead to follow up. Still he was no fool and would not walk into a trap if indeed a trap had been set up in the construction site area. Fortunately though there were quite a few jutsus he could do that would let him know what if anything was in that fenced in area without having to endanger his person.

"Bushin no jutsu!" he said after performing the necessary hand seals.

Three clones appeared out of thin air that were identical to him in every way but were essentially ghosts as they had no substance and would disappear if they received a solid hit. He would have wanted to try for shadow clones as that technique produced an actual body rather than an illusion but he didn't have enough chakra to do it without becoming exhausted afterwards. He had managed to do it Halloween night as a Jounin but that had been because he had the power of Janus to fall back on. With his own self-generated chakra producing them was possible but would consume a lot of his energy which would leave him in poor shape if the Terakens were in there. If he had any chance of beating them it would be by using his chakra efficiently and tactfully. He watched the go off into the construction site without having to give them orders as he could pretty much control them mentally from where he was. He had directed the first two to begin looking the place over while the third remained in plain sight so that he could wave his hands or something if it turned out his glance of something turned out to be something more.

For twenty minutes he watched the clones walk about the construction site looking in every nook and cranny while he waited for any sign one way or the other. Looking back in his mind for the memory of what he saw when he had been hopping by he was certain he had seem something humanoid in shape. He couldn't tell if it had been male or female as all he could recall was a shape and nothing else. For all he knew some demon or vamp that had decided to set up shop rather than the Teraken assassins. Still he had nothing better to do at the moment so stand there he did until the search was just about completed. The Fates however must have decided that he deserved a little excitement in his life because just as his clones finished their respective tasks he sensed danger from somewhere behind him and it was heading straight for him. Not waiting for anything or even turning to find out what form this danger had taken he dove and rolled to the right before returning to his feet. He had only a moment to see what threat had been heading his way before seeing something else coming and having to dodge again. Still he had identified the threat he had managed to avoid and knew that the threat level of what he was up against just went up a notch.

_Ninja? The Order of Teraka sent ninjas after me?_ Xander thought to himself as he dove forward and under the second kunai thrown at him rather than going to the side as he had done before.

This had been a plot twist he had not been expecting to say the least and if they were ninja from one of the hidden villages he had better hope they weren't any higher than chuunin in rank or else he would wind up a pin cushion. He had to throw off their game plan and quickly or the length of this battle would be measured in seconds. Moving closer to the edge where he had overlooked the search of the construction site he withdrew two kunai, one in each hand, and started to block the blades thrown his way. He wasn't planning on doing that forever though but he did want whoever was trying to kill him to think so. He blocked two more blades before making it look like he had been hit and fell over the side of the building to the ground below. In truth however he waited until the last minute before using the replacement technique doing his best to make sure that the vapor that techniques produced went unseen. As soon as the item he had used, a piece of scrap metal that had been on the rooftop, he immediately did a spider-man to guide his fall towards the alleyway using the tree climbing exercise that most genin could do. He only wall-walked far enough so that the fall wouldn't be heard and he wouldn't be hurt. As soon as he was sure of that he dropped to the ground he used the transformation technique to change into an alley cat. He made sure that the cat was black so that he would blend into the immediate surroundings and hard to see without excellent night vision. He slipped around the corner into the alley wedging himself between a dumpster and the wall of the alley. He knew that it was generally a bad idea to limit one's maneuverability like that but if he had done his job right they would not know where he was at the moment. It was a strategy to expose his enemies or at least one to show him/herself in order to find out exactly what he was dealing with. He needed to know what village they were from because once he knew that he could begin to formulate a strategy.

After all with the exception of a few basic jutsus a village tended to base their techniques around theme of the village of their origin. For example ninjas from the hidden village of sand based their special techniques on sand and wind. Therefore if he could get a good look at their forehead protectors he would know which village and which techniques to expect as well as some idea how to counter them. So with his little cat like eyes he kept an eye on the three most likely approach vectors for ninja and hoped that he had not over estimated the effectiveness of his evasion tactic. After all if he was dealing with Jounins then there was no way that they would have fallen for such a simple deception. If it was just a team of chuunins or genins he'd stand a fighting chance of beating them once he had more info on what he was dealing with. So he waited and waited until ten minutes had passed with nary a sign of anything be it friend or foe. Could they have just given up or had they split up and gone off in different directions in order to find him? Or maybe this had just been a simple 'hello' to let him know that they could kill him anytime they wanted? In any case he was consuming chakra here and if they were as good as he feared they would be then he would need every ounce of energy he could get his hands on.

"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!" came a sarcastic and definitely bloodthirsty voice from above him.

Not even bothering to look up to see who had found him he got out from behind the dumpster as quickly as he could before canceling the transformation technique and returning to his true form. Not wanting to leave his back as such a tempting target he jumped into the air to do a forward flip but when his head was pointed at the ground he pulled two shuriken out with his right hand and threw them in the direction of the voice. He knew he wouldn't hit anything but hopefully the surprise attack would ruin the ninja's aim enough so that most of anything he threw at the Zeppo would miss. Once he had his feet back on the ground he tried to make a decision on tactics specifically whether to go on the offensive or remain on the defensive. It was a fact that aside from being able to sneak up on him without being sensed but other than that he had no idea how good this guy was. Running would only show him just how good his adversary's stamina and speed was but not any of his techniques and moves. Therefore the only way to see how many different ways this guy had to give him a serious 'ouchie' was to turn around and face him head on. Bringing up a kunai in a defensive stance he waited facing the direction he had just come and waited for his pursuer to catch up.

"So you decided to turn and face me did you?" came the same voice that had found him in his hiding place as a cat.

"Well I just thought 'hey maybe this guy just made a mistake and wasn't trying to skewer me with kunai on the roof'." , Xander said in perfect deadpan humor, "After all I'm sure you'd never try and kill a perfect stranger for money or fun."

"Hehehehehe! Right!" came the voice as he emerged from the shadows and when the Zeppo saw his pursuer he knew he had his work cut out for him.

The man looked like he had stepped into an aging machine prototype and had random body parts turned into little more than skin and bones while others looked healthy. He had monofilament wire wrapped around his forearms but he was sure that this guy knew all too well how to use them. There were also burn splotches here and there but Xander did not let the appearance of this ninja fool him one bit when it came to the judging of skill and ability. Deception was part of the ninja's arsenal of weapons and a foe that appeared harmless could in fact prove to be most deadly. The only way to know for sure was to start this confrontation off and see what transpired.

_Rat, Dog, Ox, Hare!_ , Xander thought as he formed the hand seals before saying, "KATON HOUSENKA NO JUTSU!"

Bringing his right hand up to his mouth with half of the final hare seal he peppered the area around his ninja adversary doing his best to hit him but also making escape difficult. Unfortunately it seemed this man was even faster than his balls of fire as he managed to get clear of the attack in one leap. Deciding to take a chance with hand-to-hand combat he charged the man intending to disable any chance of retaliation with a swift kick to the stomach. However this guy obviously had other plans as he caught the kick before it could make contact and held on tight. Xander decided to turn this to his advantage and have the man support his weight while he delivered another kick higher up on the body. This second kick was dodged though and when he regained his footing the world was lit up with pain and a violent blue light. It was unlike any sensation he had ever felt before as muscles jerked and his mind fought for coherency. He had no idea how long the electricity arced up and down his body but he did know that it was his improvised donkey kick that freed him. The kick did not have a lot of strength behind it but it did get him free and cause his opponent to stagger back three or four steps.

_Ooohhh 'kay! No close quarters combat with this guy!_ Xander thought as he fought to shake off the lingering effects of the electro-shock therapy.

The only positive thing that he had acquired was that he knew where at least one of these ninjas came from, the hidden village of Cloud in the country of Lightning. That meant that all of the attacks this guy would send his way would be electrical in nature. This meant electrified limbs in close quarters and lightning bolts from long distance. It also meant that he needed as much room as possible to dodge and this alleyway just didn't meet his needs. He had to put some distance between the two of them and then relocate this fight to a more open area like a vacant lot or baseball field. Though in retrospect though it might be a bad idea to go to the vacant lot if it turned out that the lot had cars or some other ignitable substance in range of this guys attack.

_Or would it be?_ Xander thought to himself as an idea began to take shape in his mind.

Deciding to go with this idea he threw a trio of a kunai, shuriken and throwing needle at his opponent before taking off at a dead run. He knew that there was a propane storage area about five blocks to the northwest of here where they waited to be delivered to the various dealerships and stores. If he could lure him there he might be able to set this guy up to get one helluva hot foot along with his other foot and his legs and every other part of his body. All it would take would be one powerful fireball at the right time and at the right place to detonate those propane tanks and beat this guy. He knew that it wasn't exactly Scooby Gang method of operation to harm a human being, which despite his seemingly supernatural techniques and appearance he was, but if he had to choose between himself dying and this guy … well … he'd put some flowers on this guy's grave.

He knew the guy was behind him and gaining but he couldn't risk taking the time to use a technique or weapon to slow him down again. He doubted that this guy's teammates would miss his presence forever and when they found him he'd be up against either two more ninjas or just two more assassins from the Order of Teraka. He didn't know which he preferred but he had no intention of finding out if he could avoid it somehow. So he pushed his legs harder and did his best to make it to the propane place before electro-puss got close enough to attack him from behind.

He turned the final corner and saw his destination in the distance but just as hope began to rise inside of him he got a sharp dose of reality as monofilament wire surged past him and crossed him in the front. A kunai was tied to each wire to aide in its flight and as they crossed paths in front of him he knew what his enemy intended to do. Leaping as high as he could he dodged the wire and prevented it from wrapping around his chest but it did manage to ensnare his right leg. This threw his entire leap off but he managed to avoid falling flat in his face by using his one free foot and both arms to catch himself. He had feeling there was another shock if he didn't move quickly so he decided to try a change of tactics. Instead of trying to cut the wire he decided to use this guys own tactic against him after a slight revision. Bringing out his kunai tied spool of wire he threw the kunai beneath him and like he predicted his ugly enemy didn't expect him to counter attack. That was probably the only reason why the kunai succeeded in piercing the guy's leg almost to the handle. The pain from the attack caused the guy to loosen his grip on his wires and this is when Xander made his move. Yanking upwards with all his strength he pulled the guy's leg out from under him sending him to the ground swiftly. Taking this respite from the fight he pulled another kunai, minus the wire, from a pocket on the flack jacket and cut the wires wrapped around his right leg. His enemy had recovered from his fall and Xander knew that he had better get out of there before Mr. Scorchy Gruesome decided to try his trick again.

Fortunately he didn't have much farther to run and soon was close enough to leap over the fence surrounding the storage area landing not ten feet from the propane tanks lined up next to each other on metal shelves. He put some distance between himself and the side of the fence that he had come over and then turned to face his pursuer. Now would come the difficult part of staying alive while at the same time directing the bad guy into the kill zone. Unfortunately two minutes later another force made him remember that he was not dealing with amateurs that would walk stupidly into a trap as something slammed into his back both bruising him and delivering a sizeable shock. Xander fell to the ground in a heap, unable to catch himself this time, and it was only through sheer determination that he was able to roll out of the way of the follow up attack. Refusing to be beaten while lying on the ground he rolled to his feet and forced his legs to support him as he rose into a standing position. He cursed himself as he saw that his peril had just increased as another assassin had made himself known and judging from his appearance he was a ninja from the country of Lightning as well.

He had a body that would put a professional body builder to shame with the exception of the fact that it was as smooth and hairless as polished steel. It was clear that he had chosen his clothes with the purpose of showing off his physique but this Zeppo was glad that he hadn't decided to pair a G-String with the combat boots. He had to repress a shudder at that mental image and cursed his imagination for coming up with it in the first place. Still it meant he had two adversaries to deal with now and he had trouble enough trying to stay alive against one. Hearing the sound of displaced air behind him he saw that his initial assailant had caught up with him leaving the Zeppo to try and keep an eye on both of them.

"Manzo! What are you doing here?" the one with wires wrapped around the forearms.

"Chiyo sent me to make sure you got the job done right." , Manzo said with clear intonations in his voice indicated he didn't think is friend could do anything right, "She wants the kid here killed immediately and figured you'd screw it up without my help. Judging from the blood on your leg she was right for once."

"The kid just got lucky! He isn't the slouch we thought he was!" Wire Dude shot back making it clear he did not like working with Manzo.

"Excuses, excuses, excuses Taji! Maybe when this contract is over with you should be reassigned to something easier like killing an unruly farmers and peasants." Manzo said enjoying the signs of rage on Taji's person.

_Talk about luck! If these guys hate each others guts as much as they appear to maybe I can get them to kill each other without lifting a finger._ Xander thought as he thanked whatever deity decided to lend him a little bit of help.

"Look, guys, it's clear you guys have some issues to work out so how about I leave and we can reschedule this little smack down for some day next week. What do you say?" Xander said trying to insert himself into the argument.

Unfortunately all it did was direct their attention back his way and apparently shelve their dispute for later. Xander still believed that he could use their lack of professionalism to his advantage but it would have to be done with actions instead of words. It would take some inventive tumbling and jumping to make one of their attacks hit the other in just the right way but it was the only chance he had to win. Picking his dropped kunai up from where he had dropped it after Manzo's attack he slipped into a basic guarding position while keeping both of his enemies in sight. He knew that this Taji guy who he had been dealing with alone up until now was fond of wires and electric shocks. If Manzo's appearance was any indication taijutsu was his personal preference and that meant lightning charged kicks and punches. If he could get Taji to tangle Manzo up in the monofilament wire he could limit both ninjas' mobility and maneuverability. Then all he would have to do is use the wire he had on him in conjunction with a shuriken and kunai to pin Taji's wire to the ground before detonating the propane tanks.

_Yeah! All I have to do is get two ninja who are obviously chuunin or knowing my luck Jounin to screw up in a way that benefits me and then blow them up!_ , Xander thought grimly as he watched to see which of the two would attack first, _Lady luck don't desert me now!_

In the end it was Taji who made the first move tossing two kunai his way with wire's tied to the rings at the bottom of the grips. Deciding to take a chance Xander charged straight for the attack instead of moving away but just as he was about to get hit he lowered his running stance and allowed them to pass over his head. He knew he'd only have a few moments to act before Taji dropped the wires of the kunai that he had thrown and went for another weapon. Taking aim he threw the kunai in his hand at the psycho's right shoulder and while it was not a dead on hit a deep cut was made causing Taji to cringe with a barely suppressed cry of pain. Hopefully that meant some cut muscle or perhaps a few ligaments. It would limit his ability to use his right arm and possibly throw off his aim a bit improving his own odds for survival if only by a little bit. He had no time to contemplate the matter further though as he almost immediately sensed danger from behind and rolled to the left just in time to avoid a crushing punch by Manzo. The muscled man was not close enough to his friend for the punch to his Taji unfortunately but it did give him one opening to do some damage to the brute. As soon as he got to one knee he threw three throwing needles aiming for precise points on the arm that had delivered the punch a few moments ago. He knew nothing of the skill of acupuncture but he knew where some sensitive nerves were located based on the few times he came back from slayage patrol hurting more than usual. His aim needed work though as only one of the needles, the one aimed at the upper part of the arm, hit its target but the desired effect was achieved as Manzo proved he was less able to conceal his pain as he cried out.

"What's the matter guys? I've managed to tag both of you guys once in some pretty good spots but I have hardly a scratch on me." Xander said trying to turn the pain they were most certainly feeling at the moment to anger.

He might be able to talk a good game but the Zeppo knew that the success of his attacks were more due to luck than skill. This was his first fight against live adversaries since Halloween night using the skills he had inherited and one screw up here would make sure he never got to test his skills again. Moving to get behind Manzo so as to avoid any more throwing objects from Taji he slid to a stop and decided to pick up the pace of this fight. After all if he could get these guys to rush their moves or attack at a similar speed they would have less time to see through his strategy.

_Rat, Dog, Ox, Hare!_ , Xander thought as he formed the hand seals before saying, "KATON HOUSENKA NO JUTSU!"

He knew it was risky repeating the same technique twice in a row it was one of the few ninjutsus he was sure he could perform without messing it up or overly draining himself of chakra. As he expected they managed to dodge his fire element attack in time and turned to launch a few offensive moves of their own. Not wanting to give them a moment to form any hand seals he threw half of his remaining kunai, shuriken and throwing needles at the two of them at a rapid pace. This got the desired reaction as they hastily moved to get out of the way before seeking cover behind some of the metal shelves. It was then that he began to suspect that something was amiss since so far neither of these guys had used any ninjutsu's or illusionary techniques at all. They had used the standard weapons of the ninja and some taijutsu techniques but nothing too impressive as far as he was concerned. Had he overestimated their abilities? Or were they trying to lull him into a false sense of security by making him think he had the advantage in this fight? These were hardly the big scary Teraken assassins Giles had described since aside from the shocks he had received he was pretty much unharmed. If it was true these guys were just sand bagging him then it meant that they were setting him up for something. Maybe waiting for their final teammate to show up or perhaps something simpler like humiliating him by having him fall for their deceptively poor performance. In either case he could not allow either possibility to come to pass and that meant that his original plan to trick them into immobilizing each other was a wash leaving only one desperate possibility.

_Rat, Tiger, Hare, Dragon, Serpent, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Bird, Dog, Boar_, Xander thought as he formed the necessary hand seals before saying, "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

As three shadow clones appeared next to him he knew from the amount of chakra he had just used up that his next move would be his last. However he knew it was his only chance. He could not afford to let this fight drag out any more than it already had been lengthened. With a thought alone he and his clones sprung into action and began to throw propane tanks at the two cloud ninja hoping to break a few bones. Of course this was just phase one of his plan and once he had littered the area around the two men he put phase two into motion by signaling his clones to jump up and backwards in all directions. Once they were high enough and he judged the speed of his jump correctly he decided it was time to put the final phase of his plan into motion.

_Rat, Dog, Ox, Hare!_ , Xander and his shadow clones thought as they formed the hand seals before yelling, "KATON HOUSENKA NO JUTSU!"

With those words he peppered the ninjas and the area around them with fireballs and it only took a few seconds of bombardment before the effect he desired occurred. With a thunderous explosion the propane tanks he had thrown at them detonated engulfing them in an inferno of fire. Even if they had managed to dodge at the last second the concussive force of the blast would have at least left them stunned. While it might be worth it to try and finish them off he knew that he was in no condition to do so with so little chakra to work with. His best bet was to make tracks and try to call in the cavalry. That meant either Buffy, Giles, Willow and since he figured they would need her in the end he would even try and get his mother involved. He knew this would likely get her into trouble with her superiors but he didn't think Buffy could beat these ninja on her own. Even with some support magicks from Willow and Giles the Slayer would be facing an uphill battle. One that she might not win if she faced them alone and most certainly would not win if the third and final member of the team showed up fresh as a daisy. Only an experienced ninja could defeat them and Jessica Harris was the only one close enough that might be able to do the job. With that in mind he climbed up a nearby fire escape and once he made it to the roof he began to run in the direction of the high school. It would be easier to get there by rooftop as he did not need to worry about all the twists and turns as well as the traffic slowing him down.

_If there are any deities or devils that have a soft spot for me at the moment I hope you're feeling charitable!_ , Xander said as he cast a quick glance back at the fire he had started, _Because I'm going to need some seriously good luck to come out of this one alive!_

Just Outside the Now Aflame Propane Storage Facility, Same Time 

"You can come out now. He's out of range." Chiyo commanded once she was certain that the conditions of her plan had been met.

The ground cracked open in response to her command but unlike most natural cracks the ones that formed now formed two perfect circles in the ground. From the circles rose Manzo and Taji on which there was no visible sign that they had suffered any ill effects from the explosion. Not so much as a single laceration on either of their bodies aside from the ones the Harris boy had inflicted on them with his unanticipated attacks. He was certainly better than they had been told he would be but she was not worried. They would simply have to cease playing with him or attempting to employ elaborate strategies and just kill him outright. A pity since the leadership of the Order tended to reward operatives in proportion to the amount of skill they exhibited before a kill. Still fooling around with this boy would be dangerous especially if was given any time to construct a more thorough counter strategy than he could while fleeing for his life. Still she found herself wondering where the boy managed to learn the techniques he used against her comrades. It might be something to look into once the mission itself was concluded. If there was another ninja from the hidden villages here in this town the Order would want to know either to recruit the person or to sell knowledge if its presence to parties who might be interested. In any case she could see why the ruling body of the Order had instructed them to abandon the usual method of operation of attacking the target separately. Alone none of them would be able to defeat him without causing more damage than the Order usually permitted. Assassins in the Order prided themselves on a quick and efficient kill as they were professionals, the elite, rather than a ragtag group of mercenaries or hired goons. As such it was considered an embarrassment for an operative to leave an abundance of signs that he was there. That is why assassins separated and took their time to set up the perfect kill shot. For this young ninja though the rules had been amended to allow her and her temporary teammates to work together and perhaps even advise them to follow that route instead. Odd ruling for them but reasonable enough.

"Hehehehehe! The fool actually thought that such a transparent trap would be enough to finish us off!" Taji said with a sadistic glee as he looked in the direction the boy had gone.

"I'm going to enjoy making that punk pay for sticking me in the arm like that!" Manzo said as he pulled the throwing needle the boy had thrown out of his arm.

"Ooooh! Poor baby!" Taji said sarcastically while leering at his 'comrade' mockingly.

Manzo looked angrily at the member of his party but did not do as Taji expected because he knew that Chiyo would only reprimand them again. He was right because she would not tolerate such unprofessional behavior from someone on her team. She was determined to move up the ranks within the Order until she was regarded as elite enough to no longer be tied to these fools. She was the team leader and the reason why she had to work with these buffoons was because the ruling body of the Order didn't think she was good enough to deal with a mission on her own. In a way the Order was much like the hidden villages in how they treated the assassins in their ranks. You started with a team and only after several advancements were you considered skilled enough to work on your own. She had no problem with this because she was not hampered by the moral constraints of the Kage of her village or any of the others she was instructed to work with. All the ruling members of the Order cared about were results and professionalism. Killing machines were of no use to them and fools who spent too much time posturing to make themselves look good often died at the hands of their own supervising operative. A true member of the Order of Teraka had to have an even mixture of both in order to function and advance in standing. She had molded herself in that manner from the moment she had been approached to join the Order and had tried to meet the expectations set by her supervisor. She hoped to become the youngest member of the oversight committee in the history of the Order for it was there that the power resided. Oh it was true that the ruling body was above the committee but it was said that the members of that group had not changed since the Order's founding.

It didn't matter. Her only concern was advancing as quickly but as respectfully as possible and she would not allow these bumbling fools to undermine her efforts.

"Come. We cannot lose sight of him." She said and with a charged leap she jumped up to the rooftop her prey had departed the area on and pursued him.

He was just one more step on her path to victory but he was proving to be far more interesting than she had anticipated. She would honor his death by giving him no quarter and fighting at her best.

The Rooftops of Sunnydale, Twenty Minutes Later 

_This is not going my way!_ Xander thought as he continued on his path towards the High Schoool.

Manzo and Taji had picked up his trail sooner than he had anticipated and apparently the third and final member of their team had joined up with them soon after he left the destroyed propane storage facility. He was getting tired and they were quickly beginning to close the distance between them. He believed that he'd make it to the school before they caught up with him but only by a few seconds at best. By that time he would be seriously fatigued and would be massacred by the three Terakan assassins inside of a minute. That meant he either prayed for a miracle or he somehow arranged for reinforcements to be waiting for him when he got there. However since he wasn't telepathic he would have to find some other means of getting in touch with the guys and his mother while at the same time not making himself vulnerable to his pursuers. It was then that the old Xander luck changed for the better when he spotted some vamp walking down the street talking to someone on a cell phone. Dropping down to street level he doubted the walking corpse even realized he had been staked before the Zeppo grabbed the cell phone from him, pierced his still heart with a piece of wood and then jumped back up to the rooftops before resuming his flight to the High School.

The first number he punched in was the phone number for the High School library as he was fairly sure that Giles and maybe Willow would be there at this time of night. It took a few rings but eventually he heard the sound that indicated that someone had picked up the receiver on the other end.

"Hello?" Giles said in inquiry on the other end.

"Giles! We're in big time trouble here!" , Xander said as he made a leap down to a flag pole in the side of a building before using it to jump to another rooftop, "I managed to trip over the HQ of the Teraken assassins you told us about and right now they're on my tail!"

"WHAT?" Giles exclaimed and Xander could tell from the background noise that this had startled one or two people in the same room with the Watcher.

"We don't have time for you to brew some tea and calm down G-Man! I'm heading towards the High School now and should be there inside of twenty-five minutes." , Xander said as he quickly estimated his ETA from the building he just past and his own memories, "I need you and Willow if she's there to begin making preparations for when me and the terrible trio arrive. These aren't your run of the mill assassins Giles. They're ninjas from the hidden village of cloud."

"How do you..?" Giles attempted to ask but was quickly cut off by the Zeppo.

"No time for lengthy explanations! Let's just say that some of what I was given on Halloween night stuck and I was able to make a positive ID of these assasins" , Xander said as he took a quick look behind himself and saw three dots catching up quick, "They're good Giles, real good! Maybe even Jounin level good. That's why I need you to set something up for when I get there because I don't know if Buffy and I will be enough to beat them."

"V-very well Xander. We will be ready when you arrive." , Giles said apparently willing to shelve his questions for the moment, "However when this crisis is resolved I will expect a full explanation of what you gained from Ethan's Halloween prank."

"I'll fill out a report in triplicate. Thanks Giles." Xander said before terminating the connection.

He wasted no time before he dialed his own phone number and impatiently waited for his mother to pick up on the other end. He was reasonably sure it would be her because his father rarely moved from his easy chair in the living room when he got home from work. If Tony did answer the phone it would take some inventive persuasion to get him to put his wife on the phone especially if he had finished a six-pack of beer already. Hearing the click he waited for someone to speak on the other end in order to find out who it was so he would know what to say.

"Hello?" came the voice of his mother and really thanked whatever higher being was looking out for him because it seemed as though his luck was getting better and better.

"Mom! Ninjas from the hidden village of cloud are in town and on my tail!" , Xander said quickly as he made a particularly difficult jump to another rooftop, "I'm heading for the High School to hook of with Buffy and the others. I need you to sneak out of the house and meet me there pronto!"

"Alex? I … but …" Jessoca said with emotions that Xander couldn't really identify but he didn't have time to worry about that.

"Look mom I know that you're here undercover on some mission for Konoha but I'm in big trouble!" Xander said as he felt his energy level continuing to drop, "I don't have a lot of chakra left and these guys aren't exactly amateurs! Please mom! I'm sure Hokage-sama will understand when you deliver your report. You're my only hope!"

For a time there was silence and neither he nor his mother spoke a word. Xander could only imagine how his mother felt at that moment when confronted with a serious choice. Does she violate the parameters of her mission to help her son or does she leave him to fend for himself and hope that he somehow comes out on top? The part of him who had been living in the Harris household his entire life expected her to abandon him to save her own skin. After all that is what she had done every time Tony Harris wailed on him or did something else to make his life a living hell. She could have stepped in at any time but she did not. However ninja Xander knew from the memories he had received on Halloween night knew that his mother had to weigh her responsibilities to Konoha with her own personal desires. This part of him wanted to believe that the woman he had seen walking around at home for the past seventeen years of his life was just a carefully crafted façade. He wanted to believe that beneath that disguise was a caring and loving woman who would never let any true harm come to him and would help him when he was in trouble. This answer that she was about to give would determine which Jessica was the reality and which was the lie.

"I'll get there as quickly as I can Alex. Don't go on the offensive until I get there." Jessica Harris said in a voice that was all business.

"Wasn't planning on it. Between me and Buffy we should be able to buy you the time you need to get to the High School." , Xander said with barely controlled elation at the discovery of the true Jessica Harris, "Thanks Mom!"

"You're welcome Alex." Jessica said with love in her voice before hanging up.

_Alright! Now at least we have a fighting chance!_ Xander thought with a smile as he entered the home stretch to the front doors of Sunnydale High School.

Even though he knew that the battle was far from decided he couldn't help but think that their victory was all but certain. After all his mother was likely a Jounin herself given that she was here in Sunnydale solo without a team of her own. Add to that his slightly above Genin abilities and Buffy's own fighting prowess and these ninja from the hidden village of cloud would be manageable. Difficult but Manageable. Pushing himself a bit harder for a slightly longer jump than one he was used to he leapt across an intersection. Unfortunately it was in mid-air that he sensed danger but since oxygen had no substance he could not alter his course or do anything but try and defend himself while completing the jump. Turning around he brought his arms in front of himself to protect himself from a physical attack hoping at any kunai, shuriken or throwing needles didn't hit anything vital that would prevent him from forming hand seals. When he saw what was coming at him though he almost wished that they were throwing his way. Instead a bolt of what looking like lightning was streaking towards him as thick as you average man's arm. Channeling what chakra he had to his arms he hoped that it would protect him against the brunt of the electricity otherwise it might just punch right through him.

When the lightning bolt hit him his body was submerged in pain making conscious thought almost impossible. The only saving grace that he had was that it only lasted for a few seconds and the force of the attack was actually enough to ensure he reached the roof he had been aiming for in the first place. While he was jarred back to some semblance of alertness by his body hitting the roof his arms still protested when he tried to roll back to his feet. Still he knew that unless he got up and running again they would just continue to pelt him with bolts like those until he was one crispy critter. Still he was going to have to pay a visit to the hospital when this was all through because boy did these burns smart. As soon as he got back to his feet he forced his legs to pump harder and faster because there was no way he was going to get killed this close to his backup. He tried to make himself harder to hit by zigging and zagging at random intervals so that they couldn't anticipate his position and time an attack precisely enough to hit him. It would mean taking a bit longer to reach the High School but it was necessary to prevent another nasty attack like that. He just hoped that Buffy and company would have something pretty cool waiting for these guys when he got there or all his mother was going to find when she got there was a couple of charred corpses.

_ Please have something ready Buffy!_ Xander thought as he watched the school getting closer and closer.

Sunnydale High School Courtyard, Same Time 

"Hurry up Giles! I can see them coming!" Buffy said as she brought her wooden staff into a ready-to-kick-some-ass position.

"I'm moving as fast as I can!" , Giles snapped at her as he drew symbols into the dirt around the border of the courtyard, "Given that Xander only gave us Twenty-five minutes to prepare something for three deadly ninjas who just happen to belong to a society of deadly assassins I am amazed I've gotten as far as I have with this ritual!"

"Sooorrryyy! Just try and hurry it up a little because they've almost made it to the parking lot." Buffy said with equal tension and barely restrained anger.

Neither the Slayer nor the Watcher meant their harsh words but were merely using it as a way to vent the tension and growing anxiety that their goofy comrade Xander was bringing their way. They had all been in the library researching the current known members of the Order of Teraka in an attempt to anticipate who would be sent here to Sunnydale and how they could be defeated. They had even been making some headway in that direction but when Xander had called and told Giles who they were up against any plans they had constructed went straight to hell. Giles hadn't spun a detailed picture of who exactly these ninjas were but he did say that they were far deadlier than anything depicted in the entertainment industry. The Slayer had almost joked about how goofy they'd likely be but the abrupt way that her Watcher had begun to run around the room stopped her. If Giles was so worried that he was moving like a man possessed it had to be serious because in all the past dangers they had faced he never spoke to her like this. However good these ninja were she would do her best to prove herself their betters and put an end to it all.

Above her a section of the roof exploded and violent electricity flashed through the air letting everyone know that the ninjas had arrived. Their arrival was soon mirrored if a bit less spectacularly by Xander who flew over the charred hole left by the electric blast and landed none too gently by Buffy's side. Looking down at her friend the Slayer was shocked to see her Xander-shaped friend so badly beat up. His hands and forearms were seriously burned making every finger twitch or movement seriously painful and the rest of him wasn't much better off. Tears and cuts were visible all over with none being too serious but if he let them go for too long he would lose a lot of blood or they would become infected. Still seeing him rise from the ground with some kind of dagger in his hand she could tell he still had some fight left in him.

"Hey Buff! Sorry to drop in like this but there are these guys that were just dying to meet you." Xander said with his familiar lopsided grin on his face.

"Well I hope they're prepared for a dazzling show because no one has ever gotten any seconds." Buffy said confidently wielding the staff she held.

Xander just laughed a bit at this but just as quickly as his amusement had appeared it vanished as he looked back the way he had come to see their enemies for the evening finally arrived. They looked weird for sure and almost peripherally she could sense their power but it only caused her to tighten her resolve all the more. This was going to be a nasty one and she definitely saw some hospital time in their futures no matter if they won or lost. Even if they worked themselves to the bone they had so little time to prepare for these guys and they were likely so good at their jobs that a clean victory was impossible. Nevertheless they would fight to whatever end awaited them and hopefully with the help of Giles' spell they'd come out on top.

Then all of a sudden the three that she had seen on the roof disappeared in a flash before reappearing a little over fifteen feet away. This floored Buffy as she had never seen anything human move that fast before without some kind of mystical enhancement. Sure as the Slayer she could move at speeds that were above human limitations but that was because she had been granted those abilities due to her Slayer status. Where had these guys gotten their powers?

"Don't let their abilities fool you Buff. They're not using magic and they are one hundred percent human despite their wacky looks." , Xander said as he moved the kunai in his hands to a slightly better defensive position, "Ninjas from the hidden villages can do some pretty amazing things using energy produced by their own body and souls. Stay frosty and don't hold back. If you see an opening take it and deliver the kill shot."

"What! Xander we can't kill humans!" Buffy exclaimed in shock at her usually light hearted friend so casually tell her to kill another human being.

"Look Buffy! We don't have time to fuss over morality right now!" , Xander yelled as he almost bit her head off with the tone of his voice, "These ninjas will kill us! Our only chance of survival here is to kill them first! If it helps then know that these guys have probably killed hundreds of people for money and nothing else! They're worse than vamps because at least those bloodsuckers actually need to kill to survive!"

It shocked the Slayer to hear these words in such blunt detail but taking another look at the three ninja watching the Scooby gang from across the courtyard he realized Xander was right. She could sense nothing human in them aside from their appearances. They might be human in body but that seemed to be as far as it went with these assassins. Looking into their eyes her soul quivered at the bloodlust and complete indifference to murder she saw in them. They truly did not care who they killed or for what reason. All that mattered to them was the completion of their contract with who ever hired them to come to Sunnydale. Steel appearing in her eyes she knew that despite the wrongness of it she would have to kill these three human beings in order to protect her friends.

It happened without warning and before either Slayer or Zeppo realized it the three ninjas were upon them and the battle was joined.

The Rooftops, Ten Blocks Away From Sunnydale High School, Same Time 

_Hang on Alex! I'm almost there!_ Jessica thought to herself more to ease her own fears than to mentally reassure her son.

Jessica Harris, formerly Uchiha Jun'ko of the hidden village of Konoha, was a storm of emotions as she thought both on what probably awaited her at the High school and what her son had said to her earlier. Apparently her earlier belief that he had forgotten what he had inherited from the spell that the chaos mage Ethan Rayne cast was seriously in error. He apparently believed he could give as good as he got in a one on one fight with one of these ninja from the country of lightning and knew that she had once been a ninja herself. However that was not what was upsetting her the most. Her son apparently believed that she was here on some kind of official mission for Konoha and that the past seventeen years of his life had been miserable for a good cause. He was willing to forgive all the hardships and misery he had been forced to endure and that she had done nothing about because he believed it was for the greater good. It must have felt like a sudden burst of sunshine entering a room that had once been vacant of all but the smallest specks of light. He now saw her as someone to be proud of and his misery being worth something to someone. How would he react when someone eventually told him 'the truth' someday in the future? The pain she felt when imagining the look of hatred and betrayal in his eyes upon learning of her 'evil deeds' was almost more than she could bear. If only she could prove that her version of the truth her son might see her as she truly was rather than how she was seen by others of her native village.

_ I will show him tonight then! I will show him what kind of ninja I truly am and make him proud of me!_ Jessica thought to herself as she gripped the knife tighter in her hand.

With this determination she quickened her pace and swore to herself that if the ninja from the hidden village of cloud had done anything to her son she would return it upon then tenfold.

Sunnydale High School, Courtyard, Five Minutes Later 

_Well things could definitely be going better!_ Xander thought as he stood next to Buffy trying to help her defend Willow and Giles until the spell was ready.

It had only been five minutes since the battle had started and already the Zeppo was beginning to wonder how much longer they could keep these guys busy. He had no doubt that whatever Willow and G-Man were trying to put together would help them but he was not sure if he and the Slayer could buy them the time to implement the spell. His fatigue was only growing since he had fled the propane gas storage facility forcing him to use every ounce of energy he had left to just block their attacks. Buffy while fresher and not as tired as he was still took a few moments to adjust her speed level to where she could keep up with the ninja that targeted her. He didn't blame her as this was her first time facing ninja of the hidden village variety and these guys were definitely of the Jounin variety or he'd eat Hokage-sama's hat raw. Still it made him wish all the harder for his mother to get here soon or all that would be left of the four of them is a layer of wet meaty chunks. The only reason they had lasted this long was because the ninja Manzo, Taji and Chiyo were sticking to taijutsus and weapons in their attacks. No ninjutsus or genjutsus had been used by them so far and while he was internally suspicious of that fact he was for the most part glad. The more time that these jokers played with them or used moves that both he and Buffy could handle the better chance his mother would be able to get here in time.

It was at the conclusion of this thought that the one called Taji charged in with kunai in both of his hands and tried to deliver a double slash to the Zeppo. Bringing his own two kunai up to block he immediately launched his next attack and tried to kick the man in the ribs in order to open the ninja up for a more effective strike. Unfortunately and much to his surprise his leg passed right through Taji's form and for a moment he wondered if it had been some type of normal clone that had attacked him. That however was unlikely as normal clones had no real substance of their own and weren't much better than holograms. That would seem to imply that the Taji in front of him was a shadow clone of some kind but that also seemed wrong since he should have felt physical contact when he hit it but instead his foot passed right through. His confusion was resolved a moment later as the Taji that he had struck transformed into a cloud like substance before dissipating into the air. He should have anticipated they would possess a technique like that given that just about every one of the hidden villages had some kind of variation on the shadow clone technique. Since this was the case though then where was the real Taji. He got his answer less than a second later as someone latched onto him from behind using some kind of grappling technique. Xander was only able to struggle for a few moments to try and break free before Taji repeated the technique he used the last time he had a part of the Zeppo in his grasp. Electricity arced up and down the untrained Harris' body with only the fact that his limbs were locked up in pain keeping him standing.

Buffy saw this and moved to help her friend but was quickly intercepted by Manzo who delivered a powerful electrically charged attack to her chest. This sent her flying into one of the schools outer walls before falling down into a heap. Only her resiliency as the Slayer allowed her to avoid serious damage from the attack but it did leave her stunned and unable to help her friend. It looked for all intents and purposes that Xander Harris would die but everyone forgot one thing. He was always better than he looked and because of this almost everyone's jaw dropped when there was a sudden explosion of smoke around Xander's body. When the smoke dissipated Taji was seen holding one of the trashcans that were arrayed throughout the courtyard. When all of them began to wonder where the real Xander went the man himself was only too glad to deliver an answer from above.

"KATON GOUKAKYUU NO JUTSU!" Xander yelled as with half of his remaining chakra he unleashed a fireball down on Taji that engulfed the strange man in flame.

He couldn't maintain in for very long as he was quickly draining what physical and mental energy he had to use for chakra molding. He did have enough energy for one final move that he hoped would reduce the number of their opponents from three to two.

"KONOHA SENPUU!" he said as he struck as hard as he could with a kick that sent Taji high into the air.

Normally this would be followed up by Kage Buyou technique but he didn't have the energy to pull of such an attack. All he could was watch as the cloud ninja fell to the ground. Unable to rise into a full standing position he was forced to be satisfied with a crouching defensive position. He and Buffy watched Taji's still form hoping against hope that he would remain like that. His attack must have had some kind of positive effect on this killer because there was no way that Xander would believe he had sacrificed so much vital energy for nothing. With his own body in such a drained state he had little doubt that he wouldn't be able to repeat that little stunt and without knowing what other little stunts that these guys were capable of doing. That would leave him in a defensive position for the remainder of the battle leaving only Buffy to try and trim the enemy numbers a little more in their favor. He had little doubt in her prowess against the enemies located on the Hellmouth but against trained ninjas of the rank of Jounin he wasn't sure if she would be able to survive the next attack.

Obviously one of the non-corporeal demonic entities had overheard this bit of news and decided to stack the odds against the side of good because much to the dismay of the Scooby gang Taji did indeed rise, if a bit unsteadily, to his feet. Turning towards his enemies a look of barely contained fury was on his face as he no doubt was feeling a little humiliated at being knocked down by a weakened genin level ninja. He and Buffy only looked back with stony resolve and a determination not to let their dreams and hopes for the future die here.

All at once the courtyard was suddenly filled with eldritch light and Xander heard the sounds of a triumphant Willow filling the air. Looking around the immediate area himself the Zeppo could see that the symbols and markings that had been carved in the ground glowing with blue light. Anywhere in which the ground had been disturbed blue light had come forth and lit up the area better than any artificial light. It was clear to the Zeppo that this had been the 'something' that G-Man and Willow had managed to prepare for the ninja from the hidden village of cloud. What surprised him even more though was that he could feel himself gradually getting stronger while his enemies seemed to be feeling distinctly unsettled. It was when he looked at Buffy and saw the confident smile on her face that he realized what must have been happening. Somehow the spell that Willow and Giles had cast was transferring some of the cloud ninja's chakra to him and Buffy. This caused a smile of confidence to appear on his face as well since with the chakra that was being absorbed into his body he might actually manage to go on the offensive for once. Maybe if the spell lasted long enough they wouldn't have to fight at all as it would not take too long for the cloud ninja to be so drained so as to be unable to move at all much less fight.

Unfortunately that would be too easy according to the Fates because the look of unsettlement on the faces of the ninja soon turned to annoyance. In perfect synchronicity they generated chakra fields around their bodies and with three mighty roars of defiance and power spider-web cracks shot out in all directions from them. Earth was disturbed and the symbols that either Giles or Willow carved into the ground were broken beyond repair. Thus the spell was also broken causing the flow of chakra from the ninjas of cloud to him and Buffy to end.

"An interesting strategy Mr. Giles. However do you really think that we haven't come across similar problems in our lifetimes?" Chiyo asked with some contempt for such an amateurish spell.

It occurred to Xander that they probably would have since it was only logical when facing a ninja to try and deplete their chakra somehow before engaging them in battle. Indeed, according to his false memories from Halloween it was the preferred M.O for a ninja to wait until an opponent to let their guard down. Such strategies allowed for a quick and efficient kill. After all if you timed it right than knocking off a target would be a piece of cake once his or her defenses were down. These guys would have had to proven themselves capable of dealing with spells like this if they wanted to stay in the Order of Teraka. Still at least some good had come of the spell before it was terminated. He was back up to about half of his maximum chakra production capacity. He would still need to fight smart to defeat these guys but at least now the situation wasn't quite as grim as it had been beforehand.

"Still you have proven your resourcefulness with that spell and so we will skip this warm up period and move straight to finishing you all off." Chiyo said with both Manzo and Taji wearing identical bloodthirsty grins.

"The only ones who will be finished off here will be you three." Came an older female voice from above and to the right of them.

Looking up Xander was completely unable to keep a smile from spreading across his face. Standing there wearing a sleeveless blouse and loose jeans with her Konoha forehead protector above her eyebrows was one Jessica Harris. With a kunai in her hand she looked so different from the woman he had been living with his entire life. She had a look of determination on her face that put anything Buffy had shown to shame and had a presence that made it clear to the cloud ninja that circumstances had changed. She leapt down from her place on the rooftop and took up a guarding position in front of him and Buffy. While it looked like Buffy might take some offense at being seen as someone in need of protection Xander knew it was probably for the best. His mom had more experience dealing with ninja than him and Buffy put together and as a Jounin would be facing them on more equal footing. He'd still get his own shots in of course but at least with his mother here they might be able to avoid spending undue time in the hospital.

"Oh? Who are you Pretty?" Taji asked with mock interest.

"It doesn't matter now." , Jessica Harris said with zero emotion, "After all what use do the dead have for names?"

"Quite right. Let's get to it then." Said Manzo as he charged the elder Harris woman believing the entire time that he would finish her in one move.

Chiyo was smarter though and had spotted the forehead protector right off the bat.

"Manzo! Stop!" Chiyo yelled but it was too late as the big hairless lug had already crossed the point of no return.

It was with no little bit of awe that Xander saw his mom deal with her opponent with speed and precision. Crouching down she allowed the muscled man's punch to flow over her head but at the same time she thrust her right open palm hard into his chest. This served to knock the air completely out of his lungs and his eyes to bulge out of their sockets. He was given only a moment to reflect on this unexpected incident before the female Jounin from Konoha immediately slid into her next move.

"KONOHA SENPUU!" Jessica Harris yelled as she delivered a bone crushing kick right to Manzo's jaw sending him into the air.

Before he even reached the apex of his flight Xander's mom seemed to disappear from sight with only a slight cloud of dirt marking where she had once been. She quickly reappeared and the Zeppo recognized the move for what is was, the Kage Buyou technique.

"This is what you get for hurting my son!" Jessica Harris declared leaving little doubt that some serious pain was heading Manzo's way.

It started with a knee to the right kidney and was followed by a roundhouse kick to the left arm. Just about everyone in the courtyard could hear the bone crack and they knew that even if he was still able to use that arm it would cause him great pain to do it. With no more than a second passing Jessica used the kick to slide herself to an on top position so that her face was no more than two feet away from Manzo's. With a cruel smile she began to rain stomp after stomp onto the man's chest while using a variation of the tree climbing exercise to make sure she stayed close to him. Right, left, right, left went her legs as she hammered Manzo's rib cage with powerful kicks. When the two of them were just over ten feet from the ground she grabbed both of the man's arms and firmly planted both her feet on his chest. For a moment Xander was mystified at what his mother was planning on doing but when he took into consideration what that position would do to the guy on impact he winced in sympathy for what the ninja was about to experience. The two combatants landed with a sickening crunch as the ninja from the hidden village of cloud too the full force of the landing. With the immovable ground pressing up against his back and Jessica Harris' feet firmly pressed against his chest Manzo's rib cage suffered multiple fractures with possible internal damage.

Stepping down from her groaning adversary Mrs. Jessica Harris looked as though she had just finished a light stroll. It was the look she gave the remaining two ninja, Taji and Chiyo, that let them know it was only the beginning.

"In the infamous words of a certain professional wrestler" , Jessica declared with an abundance of confidence, "WHO'S NEXT!"

Same Place, Same Time, Uchiha Jun'ko's (aka Jessica Harris) Perspective 

**__**

****

_I know I sound confident but the truth of the matter is I'm in no shape to face two skilled ninjas_, Jessica thought to herself as she tried to make sure she missed nothing concerning her adversaries' movements_, I am just too out of shape! If these guys came at me in my prime defeating them wouldn't be an issue. Despite that fact I will not leave my son to face these monsters alone!_

"Smooth moves mom! I'd say the odds are turning in our favor." , Alex said confidently from behind her, "Now it's three of us against the two of them! Feeling lucky you two spark plug wannabes?"

"Tough talk for a runt who was half dead ten minutes ago!" Taji said with a sneer that made it clear that he was not afraid of Alex in the least nor doubted that he and his comrade would win in the end.

"Yeah well thanks to my friends' spell I'm almost back to full strength you shriveled old prune! With me, my mom and the Slayer coming at you I'd say the odds of you winning are pretty slim!" Alex barked back in retaliation for the blow to his pride.

"We shall see child." The woman in armor said with no perceivable emotion in her voice.

"Alex, since you seem to like the one with the wires I'll leave him to you." , Jessica said in a no nonsense tone of voice, "I'll handle the lady in armor."

"Yes sir!" Xander replied with a mocking military salute.

"Wise ass!" Jessica muttered just barely loud enough for him to hear.

"You should know mom." Xander stated as he focused his eyes on his designated sparring partner.

To that Jessica could only snort with amusement as she did know indeed her son's habit of mouthing off to people he didn't like. It was that mouth though that had earned him many beatings both from schoolyard bully's and from Tony at home. The pain didn't do anything to curtail his quips though. He just made them more imaginative and more damaging. She supposed that was his way of retaliating since he didn't possess the strength or skill to face the source of his problems in the same way they hurt him. It was the only weapon he had and he was determined to use it well against anyone that rubbed him the wrong way. Now though it seemed he had inherited knowledge of some techniques from her home village of Konoha. She was still determined that when this was all over to leave town with him and find someplace else to hide but perhaps it wouldn't hurt to help him refine his skills some. They would still have to be careful of where they trained and she would have to stress with him never to be seen using them but it could help if they ever were discovered by the Hunter-nins. If she got back into fighting form and brought her son up to a more impressive level they might actually be able to hold their own against a squad of Hunter-nins. It would be especially good if he turned out to have inherited the Uchiha family's bloodline limit ability Sharingan.

"No time for daydreaming woman!" the armor-clad ninja said as Jessica realized that her enemy was now only a few feet away and closing.

Uchiha Jun'ko hastily brought up her guard and managed to block the punch that had been aimed at her face but the strength of the blow was still enough to push her back a few steps. She knew this enemy was right. From here on out she had to focus completely on her adversary and nothing else or she would loose due to sheer lack of discipline. Ducking under the kick that the armored warrior sent as a follow up to the kick she grabbed that same leg right her right hand before jamming the elbow of her left arm into the back of the knee. It wouldn't break the leg but it would hit some nerves and make it painful for her to bend that knee. Hopefully the reduction in mobility would be enough to make up for her lack of training the past eighteen years. Surprisingly enough the ninja woman in armor didn't cry out in pain at the blow but all that probably meant was that she had a high tolerance for pain. That or she believed that it was a sign of weakness to let one's enemy know their attack worked by showing you are in pain. In any case she had to move the fight further from Alex and his friends both to give him room to fight and keep the inexperienced 'Scooby gang' out of the fight. Letting go of the woman's leg she decided to see if the old rule about ninja techniques was still true.

"KONOHA SENPUU!" she cried and thrust her right leg forward and up hoping to catch her opponent in the jaw to stun her and set her up for the next move.

Unfortunately the old rule 'a ninja must never fall for the same technique twice' was apparently still taught to academy students because the armored ninja arched backwards causing the kick to miss the jaw and left Jun'ko vulnerable. Channeling some chakra to the foot that was still planted on the ground she leapt into the air as best she could to avoid the counter attack she knew was coming.

After a series of hand seals the woman placed the final seal to her chest and said "SOUL BOLT NO JUTSU!"

Heralded by a flicker of bright light a bolt of energy shot out from the chest of the armor-clad woman and crossed the distance between the two of them in slightly over one second. Jessica barely had enough time to cover her body with her arms before the attack struck and even then it felt as though all the nerves in her arms were being blown apart. When she finally landed on the ground she tried to move her arms into a position that could be used both for offense as well as defense but what happened shocked her. Her arms did respond to her commands but the movements were delayed and erratic. A signal from her brain to her right arm to bend more would be followed by that arm looking like it was undergoing convulsions of some kind before settling into the designated position. She tested her legs slightly and was relieved to find that at least they seemed to work properly.

"As you can see Konoha ninja your arms will no longer respond to your commands as swiftly and efficiently as they did before." , the armor ninja from the hidden village of cloud said as she settled back into a taijutsu stance, "My soul bolt technique has essentially scrambled the signals your spirit is sending to your body through your brain. While the desired body part will move you will find it considerably harder to use in combat and almost impossible to form hand seals with."

_Damn it! Taken out by one move by some tramp from Cloud!_ , Jessica thought as her mind raced for ways to limit the damage this handicap would have on this confrontation, _If I can't force my arms to work properly, and soon, the battle will end with me and Alex dead! _

Putting her arms as fast as she could into the best defensive position for her body she decided that it was time to go on the offensive with her legs and home for the best. As soon as she got within range her adversary did as expected and tried to use the malfunction in her arms to her advantage. Fortunately in anticipating this she was able to dodge by bending backwards to avoid the blow and use that move to slide immediately into a flash kick she had seen in one of Alex's video games once. Uchiha Jun'ko almost smiled as she felt her foot connect right her enemy's jaw sending the metal-clad maiden airborne. Not willing to waste this chance as soon as she landed she pushed off the ground with her left leg and rammed her right knee into her opponent's back as it became visible. As expected the combination of the two kicks left 'armor girl', as Alex would call her, incoherent and temporarily unable to defend or attack. It would not last long though and soon her opponent would recover so she would have to press her advantage now or lose it. Surging forward with a burst of speed than anyone outside of the hidden villages would have trouble keeping up with she rammed her shoulder into the woman's back and slammed her into one of the courtyard's walls.

Leaping backward before stepping back a few paces she waited to see if her attacks had any effect on her enemy. It was a dangerous move since it would allow the woman to recover her senses as it was doubtful her combo would work a second time but it was more dangerous if she was being deceived. For all she knew she had been beating on some kind of replication and was wasting energy she would need for fighting the real Cloud ninja. The body slumped to the ground as she expected but as she waited and waited for it to disappear as a replication would or be replaced with something from the courtyard nothing happened. Despite the growing signs that the person she was looking at was indeed real and not some kind of decoy to attract her attention Jun'ko couldn't help but feel she was being deceived in some way. Looking up and down as well as out of the corner of her eyes she tried to see if there were any changes in the surroundings or any suspicious impressions in the grass to suggest a camouflaged individual. She found none though and was forced to accept that she had indeed been hitting the right person and not something else. This caused her to break out in a smile of pride. There was no way that this ninja could walk away unharmed from that combination of moves.

"Well done Konoha ninja. I had thought the loss of your arms would render you almost completely harmless to him but apparently I was mistaken." , came the voice of the armor-clad ninja as she rose to her feet, "However while you did hurt me do not think that your tactic will change the course of this battle in your favor."

Turning around Jessica Harris was almost floored by the things she saw and threw any previous theories about this enemy out the proverbial window. While she was not certain about the woman's prediction what she saw where a piece of the faceplate had been torn away chilled her to the bone. Within that armor was not a person of seasoned but young years. Instead there was a face that looked like it belonged in the ground being eaten by maggots and other assorted flesh eating bugs. The woman's skin was a sickly pale color that seemed to hang on her skeletal bones like cloth draped over a chair. Dead white hair could be seen in the corners of the torn area of armor and they looked like they might fall off at any moment. Jun'ko had heard rumors about cases like this but never truly believed that a person could become so obsessed with gaining power that they would sacrifice everything for it. Clearly this person didn't care that she looked three quarters of the way dead as long as she was gifted with significant power. The armor was likely just to make her a little less noticeable when traveling. Still it was something of mystery how she was able to move that armor as though it fit her perfectly when in fact it was three sizes two big for her skeletal frame. Probably some form of chakra manipulation.

"It might not clinch the fight for me bone lady but it definitely shows me that I can do some damage." , Jun'ko said with a confident smile, "That's progress at the very least."

"Perhaps." Bone lady said before charging forward once more into battle.

Xander's Perspective, Ten Minutes Earlier 

"Alright Taji. Let's dance!" Xander said as he brought his kunai into position with one in a defensive position and the other in an offensive position.

"Fine runt but I'll lead!" Taji exclaimed as he pulled two kunai from behind his back and threw them at Xander.

"C'mon old man! This is stuff a first year academy student could deal with!" Xander said as he easily blocked and deflected both kunai away from both himself and the gang.

"Maybe but sometimes the basics work just fine." Taji said as he yanked back on wires that had been up until that moment almost invisible.

Noticing that he may have screwed up Xander looked in the directions he had deflected the kunai towards and was shocked to find them coming right back at him. Deciding that simply dodging them or blocking them again would be useless there was only one move left open to him. He just had to hope that he could perform the seals in time to make his idea work or else electro-geezer would just redirect the kunai elsewhere. So he waited, his heart beating in time with the seconds as they passed, and when he felt the kunai had reached just the right distance from his body he sprung into action. With as much speed as he could dare without messing up the hand seals he was forming he quickly performed the replacement technique. As soon as the smoke from the technique appeared he leapt up to the rooftop to his immediate right and flattened himself against it to make his form less noticeable. He permitted himself a grin when he saw the kunai do what he had intended as they both hit the trash can he had used and actually went through to the opposite side. Immediately he got up into a crouching position and threw two kunai of his own aiming for the bottom of the trashcan. They both hit their target and one actually managed to snag one of the monofilament wires Taji had tied to the end of his kunai and pinned the trashcan to the ground. He knew it wouldn't last long and would be fairly simple to pull out but for the next few seconds that guy would not be able to move or use his arms. Time to make him pay for underestimating one Alexander LaVelle Harris!

"KATON HOUSENKA NO JUTSU!" Xander exclaimed as he brought his right hand up to his mouth before starting to fire the flaming spheres at Taji.

Normally this technique was use to hit a large number of enemies in a given area or force one enemy to frantically dodge them breaking whatever tactic the bad guy was using to pieces. In this case however it was all too easy for him to direct every last fireball at one target. Due to that modification of the technique five fireballs slammed head on into the Cloud ninja connecting hard with the guy's chest. Pressing his advantage he leapt off the roof and tackled the dazed ninja to the ground before rolling and flipping him into the air. Kicking himself to his feet he turned to face his foe just in time to seem him impact the ground. He figured he had time for one more move before Taji would recover his senses enough to fight back. The problem was what kind of move would he used and would it be enough to take this freak out of the fight. Looking around to see what he had to work with he skimmed through the techniques he knew as well as the techniques he could actually pull off. When his eyes came to rest on the fountain in the center of the courtyard he stopped and it was as if a light bulb had just lit up in his mind. It was risky and personally he wasn't sure if it would work or not but he decided there was no time for doubt and leapt onto the water surrounding the center sculpture of the fountain. Quickly he began to form the seals he would need for this particular technique while at the same time praying that there would be enough water for this to work. At the moment his theory was that while there wasn't all that much water in the fountain to begin with the fountain was on. That meant that there was fresh water being pumped into it and water being drained out of it at the bottom. If he could draw on the water from both of those sources this technique should technique should work. True he hadn't tried this one since the spell ended on Halloween night but he knew how it worked based on false memories so all he needed was to follow the instructions in his mind and mold enough chakra for the job.

It was about this time that Taji finally got back to his feet but when he turned around and looked at Xander all he did was laugh when he saw the seals the Zeppo was forming.

"Nice try kid! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" , Taji said with outrageous laughter, "Any ninja worthy of the title knows you need a large body of water for any of those high level techniques. Even then only Jounin or higher can pull them off and you're no Jounin!"

"If you look at things normally than yes it would be impossible for me to do this technique but then again this is Sunnydale so normal is a big **fat** joke!" , Xander said believing sincerely that where this town was concerned normal did not exist, "SUITON SUIRYUUDAN NO JUTSU!"

With those words both the cloud ninja and the unofficial ninja waited to see the results of the Zeppo's boastful words. After five seconds had passed with no results Taji began to laugh out loud and figured he would finish this little skirmish sooner rather than later since the boy had to have used up the majority of his chakra with that failed technique. His laughter stopped dead in its tracks though as water exploded from two different locations in the fountain and shot into the sky. Once they cleared the roof of the school they merged into a single column of water and it looked for a time that the water would continue to rise forever. Eventually though it reached its apex and with that achievement the water at its top morphed into the loose shape of a dragon's head with glowing yellow eyes. Xander was oblivious to this though as all his concentration and energy was being pooled into making sure he didn't screw things up with this move. If he had some attention to spare he would have seen the water dragon look down at the ninja from the Order of Teraka and said ninja beginning to take a few steps back. As though the pseudo dragon sensed the fear growing inside of its prey it lunged forward with its jaws open wide to receive its prey.

However Taji apparently wasn't about to be beaten by a mere novice and decided to show this upstart one of his own impressive moves.

"TEMPEST FURY NO JUTSU!" Taji bellowed and at his command no less than ten monofilament tailed kunai shot out from behind him.

What was different from his usual wire/kunai combination was that each wire and each kunai were alight with a electrical charge of no less than twenty thousand volts apiece. Another difference was rather then heading for Xander as one might expect the attack was heading for the water dragon instead. Obviously it was the Cloud ninja's intent to use the idea that electricity can separate water into its base molecules to disperse the Zeppo's attack. However what this idiot did not realize was that there were two problems with this idea. The first was that usually the separation process needed to be carried out in a confined container rather than in mid-air where the dragon was now. The other was that by sending that much current through the wires and the kunai he was doing a better job heating the water than dispersing it. This meant that instead of having a column of relatively cool water heading his way he now had warm water coming at him that was rapidly approaching something that could be called hot water. He eventually did realize his mistake.

When the water dragon was about two feet in front of him but by then it was too late.

The water dragon slammed into Taji with impressive force and slammed him up against one of the courtyard walls knocking the wind out of his lungs. However the technique did not stop as the Cloud ninja had expected. It continued to pound him with who knew how many pounds of water per square foot causing him to wonder when rather than if his bones would begin to buckle. The fear turned out to be unfounded though as the torrent of water suddenly cut off and the Teraken assassin was allowed to fall to the ground. Xander could tell just by looking at the guy that while no bones had broken his adversary definitely wasn't enjoying himself. Sadly the Zeppo wasn't feeling good himself as it had taken a little over half of the chakra he had gained from Giles' spell to make the water dragon blast technique work. He had been forced to reach deep into the drain and far into the fountain's pipes to get the water he needed leaving him with a sore body and something that had to be a headache coming on. Using his willpower and concentration to summon the water he needed was more difficult than he had anticipated but he had got it done so he could live with a slight throbbing in his skull. He watched Taji get to his feet and smiled at the slow and obviously painful manner in which he did it. The cloud ninja was probably a mess of bruises by now and no matter how tough a person was their body had a natural way of dealing with the pain they create.

_It avoids provoking pain at all cost._ , Xander thought as he tried to get his second wind in case this guy had anymore fight left in him, _Some people can block out this pain and continue to fight. Given that this guy prefers long range attacks and makes people think 'no C.Q.C (close quarters combat)' with electric shocks I doubt this guy can take the pain he's feeling._

Taking a moment to sense the life energy of his friends he was glad to see that they had stayed out of the fighting once things had started to heat up. He had seriously underestimated these guys when he had thought Buffy would be able to handle them. At the speeds these ninja were going he doubted the Slayer would be able to block or dodge more than two of five attacks sent her way. It became crystal clear to him now just how different fighting a ninja of the Hidden Villages was compared to fighting warriors of other types in this world. Buffy might be faster, stronger and more agile than any normal human but against those trained in villages like Konoha or Cloud she was only minimally better than your average human. That pretty much left Giles and Willow in the 'infant' category if they tried to fight these ninjas as they did not possess the eyes to keep up with the Cloud ninja nor the skills or the power to do any good. It was up to him and his mother alone to face these assassins and so far he'd have to say things were looking pretty good.

"Looks like it's time for you to throw in the towel sparky." Xander taunted as he prepared to deliver the final blow.

"How about he just tags in a fresh player instead!" yelled the voice of a foe he had thought down and out.

Turning his head he saw Manzo had somehow gotten back to his feet and was charging him like a raging bull. While that was enough to concern the pseudo-ninja what really caught his attention though was the fact that the Cloud ninja's entire arm was encased in visible, crackling, chakra produced electricity. It wouldn't matter if he blocked it because the volts in the blow would still surge through him and a direct hit without blocking it would kill him for certain. Dodging wasn't a possibility as Manzo was only a few feet away and closing. He himself was still fatigued from dealing with Taji. This meant no matter whether he decided to run or jump neither would be impossible for the Cloud ninja to match even with his injuries.

_In short unless some kinda freaking miracle happens I am SO screwed!_ Xander thought as he waited for either his death or his savior to arrive.

Jessica Harris aka Uchiha Jun'ko's P.O.V, Same Time 

_Good! I my arms are starting to work normally again!_ Jessica thought as she blocked an attack by the armored woman and managed to land one of her own to the stomach area.

It had been a painful ten minutes working to restore proper functioning to her arms but now that they were back she'd finish this ninja off and go to help her son. She had not been able to see all of his fight with the other Cloud ninja but I was able to see enough to be proud of him. To perform such a high-level ninjutsu technique and draw the water from such an iffy source took guts and willpower to accomplish. If they were back in Konoha when he did this she was sure that the ninjas in the family would be dumping many a compliment on him right now. Maybe even little Itachi in his young adult body would have been impressed but she had found it hard to tell anything about what was going on inside that kid's head. Still she was certain that both he and Alex would have gotten along swimmingly and maybe her son might have even been able to get a smile out of the broody child. Anyway at least now she could focus more on her battle with the armored female ninja in front of her rather than worry about her son getting hurt. While she had never been on the receiving end of that particular attack she was sure it must have hurt the Cloud ninja significantly enough for Alexander to be able to wrap things up. Once that was done he would probably come to help her with this last ninja so all she had to do was stall for a bit of time and then it would all be over.

Just then she noticed movement out of the corner of her eyes and after successfully putting some distance between herself and the armored ninja woman turned to identify the source of that motion. She was shocked to see that it was the Cloud ninja identified as Manzo whom she had believed dealt with and he was getting back to his feet. In all likelihood he would come after her to deliver some payback for causing him such pain but as the moments ticked by without the brute turning in her direction she suddenly realized she was wrong. She wasn't the target.

Alex was.

The shock of the realization and instincts she had all but forgotten were there clicked into place and almost without realizing it the birthright of the Uchiha clan activated. Everything around her suddenly became crystal clear and she knew she had to stop Manzo **NOW** before it was too late. Breaking off her battle with her female foe she charged for a spot halfway between the muscled Cloud ninja and her son in order to block any attack the monster might try. As she began to sprint she saw Manzo begin to form seals for a technique and judging by the seals being used it was a powerful lightning element ninjutsu. Never breaking her sprinting pace she watched as he finished the combination of seals and saw his arm quickly become enveloped by chakra produced electricity seeing it zip up and down his right arm. It was then that she recognized the technique from her time as a ninja of Konoha and more than that she knew what it could do if it connected with its target. Increasing her speed she knew now more than ever that she had to intercept Manzo and finish him for good or else it would be too late.

"How about he just tags in a fresh player instead!" Manzo yelled as the potency of the technique had apparently reached its peak.

It would be close but she was certain that she would make it in time to save her son and put the creep down for good. However that estimation went out the window as suddenly in a blur of speed the armored woman Jun'ko had been fighting only seconds before appeared in her way apparently intending to bar her path. Going around the bitch wouldn't work as it would only increase the amount of time it would take to reach the interception point she had chosen. The only way she could save her son was to go straight through the armored female ninja from the Hidden Village of Cloud and surprisingly it had come from the armored one's own ally. Summoning the requisite seal combination to her mind she began to mold her hands into the specified seals and it was only as the chakra electricity began to manifest on her own right arm that the woman in front of her realized who and what she was up against. It didn't help her though as both she and Jessica Harris had crossed the point of no return. Both were now committed to their chosen actions and all that was left was for them to do was follow through and see what happened. As if her arm had been replaced with an actual lightning bolt Jessica slammed her right fist into her female foe's stomach and saw the metal shatter as though it had been made of clay. Jessica didn't stop though but rather she poured on the power and continued to move forward causing her lightning-like arm to explode out the back of the female ninja from Cloud village. By the time Jun'ko's shoulder had reached the point where it would have made contact with her enemy's the Terakan assassin had practically been torn in two.

Clearing her first obstacle Jessica could see that even though she had added only half a second at most to her estimated time of interception it had still cost her precious time. It was then she realized and accepted that she would not be able to both block and counter attack in the time remaining. Only one option remained for her and with one amazing burst of speed she seemed to materialize in between Manzo and her son. Cocking her right arm and sending it forward she was only able to perceive it heading towards its target before her world was enveloped in white light and pain.

Buffy, Willow and Giles' Point of View, Two Minutes Earlier 

_Dear Lord!_ , Giles thought as he watched the battle go on in front of him_, I never actually thought I would see a battle between ninjas of the hidden villages or that one of my charges would be one of them!_

Stunned disbelief was the only way to describe what the still members of the Scooby gang were feeling right at that moment. Ever since they had first spotted these assassins all of them had known that this battle would be unlike any other they had fought before. For Buffy it was her Slayer sense what warned her these guys were trouble and even when she had temporarily been fighting one of them she had been afraid. These ninja were nothing like those goofy guys in pajamas with big swords she had seen in countless Hollywood movies. These guys were powerful and deadly in a way she had never seen before. Even baddies like The Master didn't come close to these guys no matter if the topic was speed or strength. Her own Slayer eyes had trouble keeping up with the movement of each combatant and that was the only reason she had not entered the battle after Xander's mom had shown up. She instinctively knew she wouldn't be able to keep up with any of them and probably would just get either herself or one of the Harris' killed trying. So there she stood with her Watcher and her friend Willow watching these warriors spit out one freaky move after another.

For Willow it was like everything she had ever thought she knew about Xander or his family had been nothing but a lie. She sure as hell didn't know he could do that switcherroo technique he did before or that column of water that looked like a dragon but wasn't move. Nor did she know that Mrs. Harris was anything other than a timid woman who always said it was okay for Xander to stay at her place on one night or another. It was a little easier for her to understand were her childhood friend had gotten these skills since she had seen him do something similar on Halloween but he had told them all that he had forgotten everything the spell had infused into his brain. It had been pretty much the same for Buffy except that she was doing a little better in the classes where French and sewing were required in order to get a good grade. If he had in fact kept the memories he had gotten from the spell than why hadn't he used them to help them out on patrols or anything else for that matter? There were just too many unanswered questions and too little time to ask them at the moment. So she would wait here with the others and wait until the battle was over before giving her so called friend an earful.

In the case of one Rupert Giles of the Watchers Council he was a little more informed about what was going on in front of them but even then he was stunned at what he saw. He knew of the treaty that had been signed between the Council and the Hidden Villages as a whole and how it was basically a hands-off policy between the two parties. The Watchers Council would not interfere nor hinder an operation being carried out by one of the Hidden Villages nor would the Villages prevent the Slayer or the Council from doing their duty. If the two were forced into a situation where they had to work together measures were to be taken to limit the data either side managed to glean about the each other. Neither side was interested in forming a closer alliance with each other because both had secrets they wanted kept and didn't want to tempt one side into stealing said secrets from the other. It was recorded in the chronicles of the Council to have happened a few times anyways but the incidents were few and never reached a level where it would be impossible to keep important facts from the public. In this case however the town's own syndrome of denial where the unusual is concerned would minimize the problems and the Council would foot the bill for the rest. In any case seeing such unusual and potent forms of attack and defense was superior to reading about them in one of the books in his personal stash. For a mind he entertained the possibility of sending Buffy to Konoha over the summer to learn a few techniques but immediately discounted that as impossible. The ninjas of the Hidden Villages guarded all the particulars about their techniques and resources fiercely and made sure no one found out about them unless they were meant to find out about them. Hopefully though Xander would be able to clarify some things when this was over.

It looked as though Xander had the upper hand against the one with wires wrapped around his forearms and was minutes from finishing the battle. Mrs. Harris on the other hand just seemed to be recovering from the mysterious attack the armor wearing ninja woman had hit her with earlier. If she was the senior ninja between her and Xander, which was most likely the case, then it would not take her long to gain the upper hand as well. If all went well than matters should be over in a matter of minutes and then both Harris' could begin explaining the particulars of the situation and their reasons for concealing the truth from those they professed to trust.

At that moment though Buffy noticed some movement where before there had been nothing but stillness. Looking over she was surprised to see the big muscle guy that Mrs. Harris had defeated earlier getting back to his feet. From the way he had his left arm pressed up against his chest her combo did some serious damage but apparently not enough to keep him off his feet. The badness of the situation only got worse as all three of the Scooby gang realized that neither Xander nor his mother realized that things had gone back to three on two rather than two on two. Both ninja were so focused on their current opponents that neither noticed that circumstances had changed. Buffy gripped her staff and prepared to charge in and deal with the bald Arnold but a hand clamped down her shoulder stopping her from moving.

"Giles! Let me go! I have to stop him!" Buffy exclaimed as she tried to wrench her shoulder out of her Watcher's grasp.

"No! Even wounded as he is you would not last two minutes against him!" Giles said as he reinforced his left arm with his right.

"So I'm just supposed to let him ambush Xander!" exclaimed Buffy as she was clearly outraged that her Watcher would tell her to watch one of her friends die.

"Do you think I want to just sit here! In the time I have known you three I have come to care for you greatly!" , Giles said angrily as he spun his Slayer around so that they could face one another, "As such it frustrates me to no end to realize that there is nothing I can do to help Xander! These ninja are so far above us it would be like children attacking a trained soldier! We would be lucky to survive at all if we attacked that assassin!"

Buffy could read the emotions swirling in her mentor's eyes and realized that he meant every single word he had just said. However it did not change how she felt at that moment and so she continued to struggle in her Watcher's arms. Even if she could not beat baldy she could at least distract him enough to allow for both Xander and his mother to realize an old problem had come back. However just as she managed to get her right shoulder free from Giles' grasp without hurting him fate decided that her time was up.

"Looks like it's time for you to throw in the towel sparky." Xander taunted as he prepared to deliver the final blow.

"How about he just tags in a fresh player instead!" Baldy yelled as electricity began to coat his entire right arm as he charged.

All of the events for the next few seconds seemed to occur in snapshots for the Scoobies, like watching something happen in a dark room with only a flashing strobe light for illumination. First they saw Xander turn his head and a look of fear come over his face as he realized his predicament. Next they saw Mrs. Harris notice the situation and move to intercept the muscled man before he could strike. Then 'flash' and the armored woman Xander's mom had been fighting appeared in her path attempting to block the interception. Flash Xander's mom tearing through the armored woman with her right arm covered in lightning. Flash Xander's mom appears between the bald body builder and with her arm still chock full of electricity attempts to counter her new opponent's attack. It was with that final snapshot that their vision seemed to return to normal and the strobe light affect ceased entirely. However when they looked upon the scene before them all three were wishing that the darkness between flashes had remained for then they would not have been able to view the sight before them.

All three were still on their feet. Xander, his mother and Manzo were all standing as if nothing was wrong but that perception changed as they saw Mrs. Harris throw up quite a bit of blood. She did not fall as they expected and when they adjusted their position to see why all but Giles averted their eyes. The bald guy's arm, the one that had once been electrified but now was not, was buried almost past the wrist into Mrs. Harris' body. The reason why it had not gone deeper was apparent when they estimated where the right arm of Xander's mom would have ended up. The reason why the Teraken's arm had not gone any deeper was because Mrs. Harris' arm had struck him too albeit only in the left shoulder. Her arm was no longer electrified either but was buried only just past the thumb joint before the wrist. The Watcher didn't need to know what this meant for the woman or what it would mean for his most impulsive charge when he finally accepted the truth.

The ninja from the Order of Teraka staggered back from Mrs. Harris and went to one knee while gripping his shoulder in pain. There was serious damage there but as it was not too deep it was unlikely to result in him losing his arm if he survived this battle to get medical treatment.

"Y-y-you w-will not .. cough .. harm my son!" Mrs. Harris forced out of her mouth while another spit up of blood fell to the ground.

"Mom?" Xander asked and Willow could tell that her bestest bud since pre-school was on the verge of losing the battle against fear.

Mrs. Harris trembled as she turned to face her son, each step obviously taking tremendous willpower in order to make the required limbs respond. None of them needed to know when their friend finally caught sight of his mother's wound as his eyes widened in shock and fear at what he saw. He no doubt was waiting for some word of encouragement, some explanation that would let him believe that she would be fine and everything was going to be okay.

"A-Alex … I …" was all she managed to get out before her body finally registered the wound and caused her to fall to the ground.

She didn't touch the ground though as in a flash of movement Xander caught her and cradled her gently in his arms.

"Hang on mom! I'll finish these two guys off and then we can get you to the hospital." , Xander said in a bright tone more to convince himself than anyone else, "Everything will be fine!"

Buffy and Willow hugged each other as tears began to fall down their cheeks as they knew what their close friend refused to see. Giles removed his glasses and tried to focus on cleaning them, anything to keep him from looking at such a painful scene. It is said that no parent should have to outlive their children but in this case a son should not have to lose his mother, his true mother, so soon after discovering who she truly was inside. The Watcher had heard snippets of conversation and drawn his own conclusions based on the boy … no … the young man's behavior and knew that his home life was hardly ideal. Up until this night he had believed that both mother and father were hopeless drunks and that it was amazing that Xander had turned out as well as he had. Combining the image of his mother standing defiantly atop the roof of the school with what he knew of the Konoha ninja he was able to see the truth more clearly than he ever had before. However the truth only made him all the more sorry for what his charge was going through.

"I… I wish t-that were so A-Alex." , Mrs. Harris said in a voice barely above a whisper, "It seems though that the time has come for me to pay for all the misery I failed to protect you from."

"It's okay mom! I know you were just following orders! I don't remember everything from Halloween night but I do know how strict they are about staying invisible." , Xander said trying to wash away any guilt his mother might be feeling, "I'm okay with that! You don't even have to worry about getting in trouble with Hokage-sama back in Konoha. I'm sure once we explain everything to him he'll understand that you had no choice but to break your cover to help me. Right mom?"

A quiet smile spread across her face as tears trickled down her cheeks and she reached up with her right hand to caress his face. You could see the love she had for her son in that moment, the love that told you that she was looking at the most important thing in her life right then. You could also see that she was straining to convey to her son all that was important before she met her end. She knew, in her heart she knew, that she would not live to see the sun rise in the coming morning. Xander of course was still living in denial, still believing with all his heart that everything would be okay. All three of the Scoobies who watched this scene dreaded seeing the moment when the truth would finally hit him and his world would come crumbling down around him.

"Alex... my darling Alex… my time has come." , Mrs. Harris said even softer than before, "But b-before... cough... but before I die I want you to remember two things. Your true name is Uchiha Alexander of Konoha and I... cough... cough... I... l-love… you…"

With those final words Jessica Harris' right hand fell limply to her side and the light that once burned so brightly within her began to fade into nothingness.

"Mom. Mom! NO! Please Mom! Giles get an ambulance! Please!" , Xander said as tears began to finally fall from his eyes, "You can't leave me! Not now! Not when... not when I've finally found a mother I can be proud of! C'mon Mom!"

He shook her, tried to jostle her back into the land of the living. It was a scene that was all too similar to anyone who had a loving family. Whether it was a mother, a father, sibling or grand-parent the refusal to believe that they were dead and gone was the same. However it was with these truly strong close family connections where the refusal to let go was the strongest. It is the memories that tie a person to close family members that make that sort of parting the hardest and while Xander's memories of his mother might not have been the best but in light of the revelation of who she truly was what did it matter. Alexander LaVelle... no... Uchiha Alexander had discovered a mother who he could love and be proud of so it mattered little how his life had been up until then. Now that precious thing, a loving parent, was being stripped from him and the concept was tearing him in two.

"NO! I won't let you die! I'll bring you back no matter what it takes!" , Xander yelled as he clasped his hands together with both index fingers point up, "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

With that bellow of effort an almost invisible blue energy began to burn around him and occasionally leapt off of him before returning to the main body of energy. The ferocity of this aura grew again and again and when it seemed to have stopped Xander placed both of his hands on his mother's chest and apparently tried to force it into her. Seconds passed with no perceivable change to Mrs. Harris' state but this did nothing to deter Xander but rather cause him to force more and more of the blue aura into the dead body. Giles was not sure what the energy was but he speculated it was life energy of some kind. Perhaps even the special energy that ninja of the Hidden Villages used to perform their amazing techniques. Giles began to move forward, to try and gently stop the young man from tormenting himself with the idea that he could bring his mother back, but stopped when all of a sudden the energy changed. Where once the energy had been blue it had now changed to purest white and Xander was now rigid with both hands still on his mother's chest channeling energy. Then as suddenly as it had occurred the aural energy vanished but what concerned the Watcher more was the fact that Xander had collapsed when the energy vanished.

In that moment all of the Scoobies converged on him with Giles laying him on his back and the girls on either side. Willow was weeping openly with fear for her longtime friend whereas Buffy was keeping both eyes on the two surviving ninja from the Order of Teraka almost daring them with her eyes to try something. While the Slayer stood guard her Watcher began to check the young man's vital signs as best he could. Breathing, heartbeat, eye movement and all other signs were checked. His horror mounted as with each test for life was taken and failure was the only result he received. Xander was not breathing. Xander's heart was not beating! His eyes were both still and when the eyelids were rolled back there was no life in them! This shattered whatever emotional control or restraint Willow might have had and she let out her grief while laying her head on Xander's chest. For Giles it was both a time of grief as well as a time for guilt. He blamed himself for not doing something earlier. Maybe if he had let Buffy try and intercept that bloody murderer Mrs. Harris might have been able to come up with something better than simply blocking the attack with her own body.

Buffy was in a similar state of mind except right then and there rage outweighed her grief and she made a silent promise to her friend that neither of the two surviving ninja would leave the courtyard alive. She didn't care that they were human. She didn't care that it might violate some outdated Watcher Council rule. All that mattered to her was revenge. She would avenge the death of her friend and his mother and then she would tear this town apart looking for the one who put out the contract in the first place. No more Miss Nice Slayer! If the demons of this town thought that they feared the Slayer now they would be soiling themselves by the time she was done!

For Willow all there was within her was grief and sadness as she realized she would have to go to the funeral of yet another good friend. However this one would be worse because while she and Jesse had been friends Xander had been the best. Whenever she was lonely or depressed he never failed to cheer her up with some kind of corny joke or oddball comment about some trivial or ridiculous thing. All through their friendship he had been like that and it had helped her through her tough times as the school geek. Now he was gone and while Buffy and Giles weren't exactly chopped liver neither of them could possibly fill the empty place that existed in her heart now. Lifting her head up from her friend's still chest she cupped his right cheek in her hand just like his mother had done before she died.

"Xander! Please come back! I need you!" Willow cried between sobs as she pleaded with everything she had for her friend to come back to her.

**__**

**_Elsewhere_**

_Where am I? _Xander wondered as he looked around the nebulous dark cloud he had awakened to find himself in.

His mind was slightly muddled as he continued to try and discern his location and facts came slowly into his mind. He had been holding his injured mother, trying to infuse chakra into her body to sustain her until the ambulance came and the paramedics could take over. Then a strange feeling had come over him as he had upped the level of chakra he was channeling and then nothing. Everything had gone black until he had woken up and found himself here. There were no discernable markings or signs anywhere center on. Nothing but and endless storm cloud like substance that made it impossible to see more than a few feet ahead of himself and even then it was iffy. It was as he was turning round and around checking out the landscape that he saw something, a point of light that was almost like a needle in shape. Deciding that that was as good a place as any to get some answers he ran in that direction intent on catching up to that piece of light.

All during his running he felt this niggling at the back of his mind that seemed to be whispering something to him. However as he could not understand it he ignored it in favor of something he could see and comprehend such as the light in front of him. After a few minutes he could tell he was catching up to it and that it might be close enough that if it were a living thing it might be able to hear him.

"Hey! Wait! Wait up!" he yelled as he maintained his speed and watched as the light he had been chasing got bigger and bigger as he got closer.

He cheered mentally as the light seemed to hear him and stop. That meant that it was alive and if it was alive and could understand English he might be able to get some answers about where he was and how he got here. Closer and closer he came until he could begin to actually pick out features appearing on the body of light in front of him. It was continuing to grow in size as he got closer and with size came detail until he could tell it was actually a glowing person rather than just light. The person was undeniably female wearing some kind of loose pants and shirt with a vest of some kind on as well. Some rectangular object was strapped to the person's right thigh and a headband was wrapped around the woman's forehead. As the distance closed to less than fifteen feet the details of the person suddenly shifted into ultra-high definition and Xander stopped in his tracks as he saw who it was.

"Mom?" Xander asked pretty much rhetorically as he looked at her wearing the uniform of a Konoha ninja.

"Alex? Is that you?" asked the almost transparent yet glowing form of one Uchiha Jun'ko aka Jessica Harris.

"Yeah mom! I'm here to take you back! C'mon!" Xander said happily as he reached out to grab his mother's hand to lead her back the way he had come.

"No Alex! It's too late for me!" , Jessica said jumping back from her son's arm, "Go back and live!"

"Don't start with the crazy talk Mom! We can both go back! Your wound wasn't that bad!" Xander said shaking his head in denial of what his mother was telling him.

"Alex stop it right now! I know you're hurting but you have to let go of me!" Jessica said as she hugged herself out of habit rather than necessity.

"NO! I don't want to hear any of that crap! This is Sunnydale Mom!" , Xander said becoming angry at his Mom being so willing to just give up, "Crazy stuff happens here all the time so why not miracles too! You have to come back! You have to!"

"I want to, god knows I want to, but it just isn't meant to be Alex." , Jun'ko said looking at her son with sad yet accepting eyes, "I was a ninja long enough to know when someone is injured beyond the hope of recovery. I doubt even Tsunade-sensei could heal the wound Manzo inflicted upon me."

"Tsunade-sensei?" Xander asked with some interest as he was sure somewhere in his fake Jounin memories he had heard that name before.

"She was my sensei, my mentor, when I graduated from the academy in Konoha as well as a specialist in the field of healing jutsus." , Jessica said as she became lost in her own memories, "People were always amazed at what she could do and it didn't take long before she stopped being referred to as the grand-daughter of the First Hokage and was simply seen as a skilled healer. She would probably have tried to heal me anyways just like you are trying to but eventually she would accept the reality of it all."

It was when his mother referred to Tsunade as being the grand-daughter of the First Hokage that an image came to his mind of a blonde woman with a weird diamond tattoo on her forehead. He did seem to recall vague impressions from his fake memories that she was viewed as an expert in using healing jutsus and if his mother thought that even Tsunade-sensei couldn't save her then maybe she was destined to die now.

Closing his eyes he felt the defiance and refusal to accept the situation fading away into the background of his soul and quiet acceptance take form. He hadn't wanted to believe that something so precious to him could be taken away from him so soon. It had only been a little over three months since he learned the truth about his mother and already fate had conspired to take her away from him. Still living in denial would solve nothing and dying out of sheer stubbornness would be just plain stupid. There were still people back in Sunnydale who needed his help and now that the cat was out of the bag he could help them more freely than he was able to before tonight. Giles, Buffy, Cordy and his bestest bud Willow would still need him to help fight the baddies and thwart yet another apocalypse when the month of May came around. He couldn't just abandon them for his own selfish reasons just because it would hurt him to be separated from his mother.

He had to go back.

A feeling of warmth and love appeared on his upper arms and he opened his eyes to see his mother looking at him with those loving eyes of hers and a smile to match.

"I will always love you my son." , Uchiha Jun'ko said as she bent down to kiss her son on the forehead, "Now go and do your mother proud!"

When her ghostly lips touched his forehead the darkness of the storm clouds vanished and all that he knew was white light and warmth.

**_Sunnydale High School, Courtyard, Two Seconds After Willow's Plea _**

"Gasp" was all the sound Xander could make as his eyes sprung open and his body began to return to normal.

"Xander! Ohmygodyou'realive! Don'tyoueverdothattomeagain!" came Willow's voice in a rush as she wrapped her arms around him tightly as he sat up.

"Xander!" Buffy said as her head whipped around to confirm what her ears had just informed her of.

"My word! We thought we had lost you." Giles exclaimed as he tried to regain his British stiff upper lip.

Xander could hear these words being spoken by his friends but it was as if they were on the other side of a busy highway with only every second or third word getting through to him. In this case though the traffic that was preventing him from hearing them was called **rage** and **revenge**. Those forces were the only thing he was listening to right at that moment and they demanded he unleash them upon the Cloud ninjas for what they had done. A request he was only too happy to grant.

"Xander?" Willow asked with a small amount of fear as a look of all consuming anger took form on her best friend's face and it was a look that had never been there before.

"Shoulda saved yourself some time and just followed that slut to hell brat!" came the strained but still strong voice of Manzo.

At these words Xander's head jerked in the direction of the Taji as he seemed to will all his fury and murderous intent at his target. For most people this look alone would have them reconsidering what they said if not completely retracting the statement. Amazing how few bad guys ever listen to non-verbal warnings like that.

"Don't worry though. Give me five minutes and you'll be sitting by that bitch in no time!" Manzo said with a sneer as he clearly still believed he was in the dominating position.

That was the final nail in the Cloud ninja's coffin as any chance of mercy disappeared with Taji's ill-chosen words.

Reaching over he lifted the Konoha forehead protector off of his mother's head and slipped it onto his own before tightening it for a better fit. Getting to his feet he shook off any attempts by Willow or Giles to stop him and faced his mother's murderer with his sweat drenched hair slightly obscuring his eyes from sight.

"Oooh! Did I hit a nerve punk? What're you going to do about it? Guess that slut didn't teach you to recognize when you're outmatched brat!" , Manzo declared purposefully antagonizing Xander oblivious to the young man's tone, "You may have taken down that baka Taji but I think you'll find yourself way outclassed with me even if I'm a little banged up!"

To this Xander just channeled chakra to his eyes and decided to let the birthright of the Uchiha clan speak for him. The red eyes of the Sharingan were known throughout the Hidden Villages as well as to what family they belonged. Before this night was over both of the remaining Cloud ninja would know the fury burning in those eyes and swear that death had come for them in the form of an unknown Uchiha.

Everyone around him gasped as they took in his new eyes and he could imagine it did look pretty strange on him but it felt right. As soon as his mother had told him his true name he knew that he possessed the birthright of the Uchiha clan. From what he could recall from his fake Halloween memories the Sharingan was genetically encoded in every Uchiha but only manifested itself under duress commonly found in battle conditions. So while a farmer Uchiha or an Uchiha in charge of a store did possess the Sharingan they did not live the sort of lives that would facilitate its manifestation. Using this bloodline limit ability and his own training there was no doubt in his mind about the outcome of this fight. However despite his powerful desire to draw out Manzo and Taji's torment he would remain true to his mother's spirit and the teachings of Konoha he still retained.

"So you got lucky and managed to trigger your Sharingan! Seeing as how you didn't use it against us before I'm guessing you just got it which means you don't know how to use it yet!" , Manzo said sounding brave despite the slight twitch in his left eye, "So get ready to sleep with the bugs brat cause here I come!"

This frontal attack was exactly what Xander had hoped for but before he could begin pounding this guy in earnest he had to move the fight away from his mother's remains. She might be dead but there was no way he would allow that bastard Manzo harm her body any more than it already was right now. Leaping forward himself he had his first experience with the powers of the Sharingan as he was able to anticipate exactly where Manzo's fist would go as though he had seen this fight play out already. With his left hand he slammed a palm thrust into the Cloud ninja's gut and then while his enemy was dealing with the shock of the blow he moved into the next one.

"KONOHA SENPUU!" Xander yelled as he slammed the heel of his right leg into the jaw of Manzo sending him into the air.

Going to all fours he used the strength from both his legs and his arms to thrust himself into the air and appear right behind and below Manzo.

To start things off he jabbed at a pressure point on Manzo's back to temporarily disable his nervous system making it impossible for him to move but also dulling whatever pain he might feel. From there he grabbed the man's right arm and swung up from his right side while at the same time twisting the arm as far as it would go. Once he reached a point where he was face to face with Manzo he planted one foot on the man's chest and adhered to it with chakra before lashing out with his other foot and breaking the man's arm at the elbow. Grabbing the unbroken left arm he swung back below the man before using the arm in order to deliver a bone-shattering knee thrust into Manzo's back. Apparently the effects of the pressure point he had hit a few seconds ago were wearing off as Manzo screamed out in pain as his back broke. Either that or the pain the Cloud ninja was going through was so incredible that even his dulled nerves couldn't keep him from screaming. Now it was time to put the finisher on this combo and he knew just how to do it. Delivering a kick so Manzo's feet were where his eyes were looking he wrapped his arms around the man's legs at the knee and firmly planted both feet in the Terakan's armpits. Then he just gave a slight push with his chakra and let gravity do the rest.

"CRIPPLER COMBO!" Xander yelled and with enough force to leave spider-web cracks reaching three feet in all directions planted the man to just below his armpits in the dirt.

Letting go he stepped off his defeated enemy but before his friends could compliment him on his move he whirled around and threw two kunai which hit a point just to the right of the main exit to the courtyard. Half a foot to the left of those kunai was a scared looking Taji who apparently was trying to make a silent exit while he could.

When Xander's eyes and Taji's locked the Cloud ninja knew that any chance he might have had for escape was gone and that if he didn't act quickly he'd die just like Manzo and Chiyo.

Not even bothering to say anything Taji immediately began to form seals, every single one of them caught by the Zeppo's Uchiha eyes, and on the last one unleashed a bolt of lightning as thick as a telephone pole. However Xander's eye of insight saw this coming after the first few seals and instead of hitting him the bolt went right through to hit Manzo. Taji was shocked as he couldn't immediately understand what had happened but when he saw who he thought was his target disappear in a puff of smoke he knew that the Bunshin no jutsu technique had been used. Looking around frantically he tried to see where the Uchiha was coming from but it wasn't until the assassin looked straight up that he finally found him. However he could only dodge as less than a second after he vacated the spot where he had been standing an almost exact replica of the lightning bolt he had just shot at the Uchiha struck the ground. Staying still only briefly when he landed before heading after his foe he decided to see how Wire Guy dealt with some more firepower.

"KATON GOUKAKYUU NO JUTSU!" he yelled and bringing his right hand up to his mouth fired a ball of flame the size of a wrecking ball at his target.

Taji expected this apparently as he quickly turned and began throwing wire towing kunai in all directions before making three seals and saying "STORM BARRIER NO JUTSU!"

All at once chakra produced electricity shot out along the monofilament wires and when the power level reached a certain level two seconds later the energy even began to jump from one wire to another. It was the fact that the chakra electricity was jumping from wire to wire that prevented his fire element attack from going any further. As soon as the ball of flame hit it immediately dissipated and unless Xander's eyes were very much tricking him the barrier seemed to get quite a bit stronger.

"HA! Fell right into my trap now boy! HAHAHAHAHA!" , Taji crowed from behind his barrier, "Guess the Uchiha clan isn't as unbeatable as they say! Use all the ninjutsu techniques you want brat! My barrier will just eat the chakra up and use it to reinforce its own strength!"

To this Xander said nothing but just continued to stare at the Cloud ninja with his revenge set eyes and his Sharingan capturing every move the Zeppo's enemy made.

"The silent treatment eh? Well than take **this**!" , Taji said before forming another series of hand seals before yelling, "LIGHTNING RAIN NO JUTSU!"

With that he threw a sphere of electricity about the same size as Xander's own Grand Fireball into the air but once it reached its apex it exploded an dozens of mini-bolts of lightning began to rain down around the Zeppo. They weren't very big, about the size of a pencil, but the charge they carried with them was about equal to that of your average tazer. Even dodging as fast as he could he wasn't able to avoid all of them even with his Sharingan helping to show him the individual bolts' descent paths. Fortunately though the fifteen years he spent receiving beatings from Tony Harris combined with weekly patrols with Buffy gave him a pretty high pain threshold. Still he couldn't just stand there and soak up this abuse all night. He had to find a way past this barrier and he had to find it now!

In the space of the next three seconds he went through all the jutsus that he had retained knowledge of after the Halloween incident looking for a move that would finish this fight. Just like last time though he managed to come up with a sweet move that should do the trick but also like last time there was a condition that needed to be met in order for him to pull it off. The problem was visibility since if Taji saw him beginning to use the technique he would be able to counter it easily. Normally a ninja could fix this problem with a few smoke bombs but as Ethan hadn't included those with the costume nor had he the materials to make his own he would have to improvise.

Time to gamble, Xander thought before forming hand seals and saying, "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

For a moment his vision blurred as his chakra was divided into four other replications amidst the dispersing smoke generated by the technique. He didn't stay around to see what would happen as he immediately used the remaining chakra in his body to displace the ground beneath him allowing him to sink into the dirt. Once he was fully submerged he began to make his way to his target using his senses and Sharingan to home in on the target's location. Through the dirt he could hear what was being said above him even though he could not see it and prayed that his plan would work out.

"What do you hope to accomplish with that move brat? You just made four weaker copies out of one big loser!" Taji jeered apparently unaware that the shadow clones were just a diversion.

"KATON GOUKAKYUU NO JUTSU!" Xander clone number one said as he finished forming the necessary hand seals to deliver his response to Taji's comments and question.

This attack was copied in complete synch with the other shadow clones and the original Xander knew that he had to hurry because when his copies exhausted their chakra supply they would likely disappear. Trying his best to hurry things along without giving away his location he was fortunate to arrive at his destination just as his shadow clones exhausted their individual chakra supplies.

"Told ya! HAHAHAHAHA! So what are you going to try now runt!" , Taji said with untold arrogance at his soon to be victory, " With so little chakra left all you can do now is spit on me! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

With those words the original Zeppo could sense all of his shadow clones disappearing and knew it was time to spring his trap.

Strengthening his hands and arms with chakra he punched through the dirt above him and said "DOTON SHINJUU ZANSHUU NO JUTSU!"

In the blink of an eye and before Taji could counter the attack in any way the Cloud ninja was yanked down into the earth until he was buried up to his neck in it. Emerging from the ground and feeling what chakra he still had slipping away he made a mental note that this particular technique used more chakra than one would think. He would definitely have to work hard to increase his own chakra capacity before he tried it again or else he might find himself in an unpleasant situation. Putting that aside for the moment he advanced on Taji quickly and before the moron clued into the fact that he wouldn't be able to escape his dirt prison with brute strength Xander pulled two kunai from his vest and placed one at the neck and the other at the temple of the ninja's head.

"It's over Taji. You and your comrades have lost." , Xander said in a tone of barely controlled rage, "Tell me who put out the contract and I won't torture you to death for playing a part in my mother's death."

"I swear! I didn't know Manzo was going to kill her!" Taji said as he began to plead for his life.

Xander just pressed the kunai harder against the man's skin to let him know he better answer the question and sooner rather than later.

"A female vamp in some warehouse in Sunnydale! She's nuts! She's the one that put the contract out on you!" Taji said quickly as he was beginning to feel blood trickle down his neck.

"Thanks. Now you die." Xander said as he drew back his kunai a little in order to put the strength and speed behind it to penetrate their individual targets.

"You said you wouldn't kill me!" Taji yelled in shock as his moment of relief gave way to a storm of horror.

"I said I wouldn't torture you to death. I never said I wouldn't kill you." Xander said and with those words he plunged the two kunai into the neck and temple of the Cloud ninja killing him thoroughly.

Yanking the kunai back out again he wiped the blood and guts off on the grass and turned to see that the storm barrier technique that Taji had erected had come down. Whether it came down when he was submerged up to his head in the dirt or when he was killed the Zeppo didn't really care. All that mattered to him now was getting to the warehouse and finishing off Drusilla once and for all.

"Xander?" came the unsteady and a bit fearful voice of Buffy who was staring at him from two paces in front of Willow and Giles.

"Don't worry Buffy. It's almost over." , Xander said as he slipped the two kunai he had just used into his flak jacket, "Just one more loose end to tie up."

"Xander you can't go after Drusilla on your own! Even if you've gone all super ninja on us you're totally maxed out from fighting these guys!" Buffy said in protest as she subconsciously stepped towards the main entrance to the courtyard to block his path.

"I may not be at my best right now Buffy but I have more than enough to deal with one psycho vamp with a death wish." Xander said as he shook off her concern and made to move around her so he could get underway.

He didn't like to lie like that to Buffy but if he waited until he got his strength back Drusilla could leave the warehouse and go somewhere else. Somewhere he wouldn't be able to find her and kill her for setting events in motion that ultimately resulted in his mother's death. He refused to let that happen! However the Slayer had other ideas as she continued to block his path and it was getting to the point where he was starting to get annoyed.

"Out of my way Buffy." Xander asked his friend in as polite a tone as he could manage given his current state of mind.

"No! Look we can go after Drusilla tomorrow when you've rested." , Buffy said with her own unique resolve face, "I doubt she's going to skip town just because these guys didn't win."

"Indeed. Also the Order of Teraka won't give up just because these three failed. Drusilla knows this and will likely just wait for the next group to arrive." Giles said in order to further reinforce the idea that the mad vampire could wait.

"Please Xander?" Willow asked and as soon as he looked at her and saw her eyes he felt his resolve to hunt down Drusilla tonight crumble.

"Fine. Look we better get out of here before the local idiot police show up and start asking questions." Xander said as he thought he could hear sirens in the distance.

"Right. We can go to Giles' place and then you can explain how you can apparently be stabbed then poof and put a trash can where you used to be." Buffy said with a look that said 'I want answers and I will have them one way or another' with no room for negotiation.

"I'll tell you what I can but try to understand that for the sake of my mom's real job I'll have to keep some things to myself." Xander said as he gazed over to where his mother's body lay.

He felt some guilt at leaving her here for the police to find but he doubted Giles would approve of him lugging a dead body into his apartment. Besides without any eye witnesses to pin this on the Scooby gang the idiot cops of this town would look for the simplest explanation they could come up with. Which either meant 'gang members on PCP' or they would construct a scenario where each of the dead persons in the courtyard killed each other. Quick, easy and simple which was the way everyone seemed to like it in this town when it came to the unusual or the unexplainable. It would certainly make things easier for him when he burned the warehouse Drusilla was in to the ground after he batted her and her minions around a little.

When that was done he would have to see to the funeral arrangements for his mother because there was no way that he was going to let Tony make those decisions. He'd probably be happy buying the cheapest casket, the cheapest tombstone and the least expensive spot of land in the cemetery and then drink all the insurance money away. Besides he already knew what he would do and how he would do it. He had known the moment he had seen his mother standing atop the roof of the school looking down at them all.

He would take her home.


	3. A Hint of Things to Come

Note : Let me start by saying I am extremely, most genuinely, most profusely sorry for taking so long in getting this chapter finished and posted. The muse that originally prompted me to write a Naruto/BtVS crossover went into a coma shortly after the completion of the second chapter and has only recently come back to life. Turns out she only needed a big injection of new episodes to wake up. While I cannot guarantee that she'll never go into a coma again I will say that I will make every attempt to keep her focused on task.

Another item for discussion is my need for a new beta reader for this fanfic. In the first two chapters I was able to safely rely on the support of 3D Master to beta read the chapters and make sure all the kinks were worked out of the chapter. However it has been over a week since I emailed him this new chapter and I have not heard so much as a peep from him since. I can only assume that this is his way of saying 'I will no longer be beta reading for you' and thus I appeal to you the fans of this particular fanfic crossover. The requirements for the position of beta read is as follows:

You must have a firm grasp of both shows. If you were given a serious test designed to find out how well you knew either BtVS or Naruto you would score a B/85 or higher. The reason for this is because as the beta reader one of your jobs will be to make sure I have not made any factual errors with regards to important elements of either show. After all nothing causes people to flame your fanfic more than making obvious/serious mistakes regarding their favourite show.

Your second job aside from fact checking will be basic grammer and spelling corrections. While I myself will do my best to eliminate these mistakes as I write I will likely miss a few and those will be ones you are to catch.

I am not completely close minded with regards to suggestions as to how to make a fanfic better. After reading each chapter please feel free to toss an idea or two my way on how to make the plot better. I cannot guarantee I will use your idea but the discussion itself might be enough to inspire some really great stuff.

While I would prefer the beta reader to be a fellow fanfic author like myself you do not have to absolutely be one to be accepted as the new beta reader. Email me if you're interested. Now one with the show…

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Giles' Apartment, One Hour Later 

"So where would you like me to begin?" Xander asked after taking a sip of his drink.

"Well you can start with how you went all ultra ninja on us." Buffy stated neutrally although he could tell that the memories of the fight were beginning to sink in.

"Most of what I know was left over memories from Halloween. Since then I've been training in the abandoned science building in campus to get better and master some of the tougher techniques." Xander replied efficiently while keeping a lid on how much he remembered from Halloween and how many techniques he could do.

"Why didn't you tell us? You said you forgot everything you knew as ninja Xander the next day at school." Willow asked clearly a little hurt that he hadn't confided in her.

"Wellll, that's a little more difficult to explain!" Xander replied as he tried to figure out what exactly to tell them and what to keep secret.

"His mother is a ninja from a the Hidden Village of Konoha. In all likelihood she was here under cover as it were and so a certain level of secrecy was required in order to fulfill her mission." Giles replied and everyone turned in shock at this, "Not knowing who might be watching or listening in Xander no doubt felt it safer to keep such information to himself."

"How do you know about the Hidden Villages G-Man? They're called Hidden for a reason and generally don't advertise their existence to the public." Xander asked more than a little interested in just how much the Watcher knew.

"The Watcher's Council has been aware of the Hidden Villages for well over a century but due to certain agreements between both parties contact has been kept to a minimum." Giles replied as he took his glasses off and cleaned them, "However I must admit that I wasn't informed that one was living here in Sunnydale when I was assigned to Buffy. Whatever mission she was on must have been of the utmost importance to warrant such secrecy."

"Enough for her to sit back while his Dad beat the hell out of him?" Willow exclaimed clearly not happy with the thought of her best friend's Mom not protecting her son when she could have.

Buffy couldn't help but looked shocked at this revelation about her Xander-shaped friend's home life. Looking back from the present to the day she had first met him she tried to see if there were any signs she should have seen or any clues that she had dismissed as nothing. In the end though there was nothing she could do to change how she behaved in the past. All she could do was try to be a better friend in the future and make sure something like that never happened again to one of her friends.

"Chill Willow, I'm alright with it. I'm sure whatever mission she was sent on here was important enough to justify it. After all she was here in Sunnydale for over seventeen years and most assignments given to ninja in Konoha don't last that long without a reason." Xander said as he tried to calm his friend down and defend his mother at the same time.

Young Ms. Rosenberg wasn't happy with it but she seemed to decide that complaining about it now wasn't helping matters any.

"Okay I get the fact that your mom had to be all secret agenty to do her job but you could have told us something." Buffy said slightly less angry about him keeping secrets than before, "I mean all you had to say was that you kept some of the wicked cool powers you had on Halloween and left it at that."

"I know, I know but without knowing the details of my mom's mission here I couldn't risk exposing her by running through town with my flashy new Hidden Village powers Buff." Xander said trying to be as reasonable sounding as possible, "You know how hard it is to keep your Slayer thing a secret and you just have super human strength, speed, and agility to cover up. How was I going to explain being able to breath fire and duplicate myself to the rest of Sunnydale? It was just easier keeping it a secret."

He could see Buffy's protests dying as she recalled the numerous times she was almost caught using her powers in public or while on patrol only to be seen by a human citizen of Sunnydale. From the first day when she had almost staked Cordy at the Bronze to the present she had forced herself to try and maintain a secret identity as best she could. While she hadn't done it gracefully she had managed to keep her rep down to simply being the 'weird blonde' rather than that 'psycho chick with super strength'. With him it would have been much harder to keep his abilities a secret if he had used them to help on patrol since balls of fire and five Xanders tended to be a little harder to explain than being a little stronger than he should be.

"What about those weird eyes you had fighting those last two ninja?" Willow asked with what could be termed her 'scientist voice'.

"Those are a bit top secret but what I can say is that only my mom's family has them and they give ninjas a big advantage over enemies by letting me copy their moves and predict what they're going to do next." Xander replied trying to keep things brief and to the point.

"Cool!" Buffy exclaimed and the Zeppo could already see her mind imagining what it would be like to have eyes that could do that.

"Yeah, I guess they are." Xander said as the mention of the Uchiha bloodline limit brought his thoughts back to how he triggered the ability in the first place, "Well I better get home. Won't take the local P.D. too long to identify my mom and I want to make sure the body gets claimed. Knowing Tony he'd probably dump her on the town and let them make the funeral arrangements!"

"You want me to walk you home Xander?" Willow asked with a look that told him that she knew the real reason he wanted to leave.

"No that's okay Wills. Just be sure to get me before noon so we can go and finish off that bitch Drusilla for good." Xander said with a voice that made both the Slayer and the Wicca glade they weren't Drusilla.

"Of course." Giles said and with that he closed the door to the Watcher's apartment and walked home.

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**_Harris Household, 20 Minutes Later _**

"Where the hell were you! And where's you're worthless mother!" were unfortunately the first words that Xander heard when he got in the door and they came from the person he despised the most.

It sort of surprised him that his father was awake at this hour given that most other times he had come in past curfew the slob had been out cold in his easy chair surrounded by liquor bottles. He could only surmise that the fool had run out of beer and had been working himself into a towering rage as he slowly sobered up. However at this point he didn't really care what the filthy couch potato had to say as he had more pressing things on his mind than to bother talking to a man he called Tony instead of Dad. With that in mind he walked right past the beer-bellied man and went into the kitchen to make a sandwich. He would have to stay up at least until the police arrived at their doorstep to talk with them otherwise Tony would do it and then there'd be no telling how long it'd take him to get his mother's body for her funeral. He had just gotten a loaf of bread out to cut a few slices when he sensed something coming at him and repositioned his head slightly. He was fortunate that he had for two seconds later a beet bottle shattered against the wall in front of him. It had clearly been thrown at his head and there was only one person stupid enough to do something like that.

"Don't you dare ignore me you worthless piece of trash! This is my house and so long as you're living under it you'll show me the respect I deserve!" Tony yelled as he advanced on his son with a look that said he intended to back up his words with actions.

"RESPECT!" , Xander yelled as his fatigue and the trauma of his mother's death began to catch up with him, "What would a drunken, overweight, welfare dependant, IDIOT like you know about respect? And for your information Tony mom has been the one making the payments on this house for the past ten years so its more her house than yours anyway!"

Tony took a step back at this as he was probably shocked to hear such words when usually Xander did everything he could to avoid a fight with Tony regardless of how much the moron deserved it. Unfortunately this shock didn't last long and a moment or two later the idiot's drunken induced rage and stupidity resumed and told him to respond to his son's words with violence. Xander of course saw this coming a mile away and compared to the speeds he had been fighting at against the Cloud ninjas Tony seemed to be moving in slow motion. Not even bothering to block the man's punches he merely stepped out of the way and let the fool miss on his own. He did this three or four times but the fool still didn't clue into the fact that he was never going to hit him at that speed. Deciding he didn't need this kind of hassle so late at night he decided to put an end to it in one blow. Waiting for Tony to throw another lame haymaker punch he dodged it then delivered a sold punch of his own to the old man's stomach. This forced out all the air in the man's lungs in a big way but it also intensified the smell of alcohol in the room as well. This was made worse as a few seconds later Tony Harris threw up the contents of his stomach on the kitchen floor making the smell almost unbearable. Going over to the fridge he took a can of pop out of it along with a package of shaved roast beef and headed for the front porch.

Before he did though he said "Take a hint Tony. I'm not going to be your punching bag anymore and neither is mom. Get your act together or you can look forward to spending the next ten to twenty in prison for assault and battery."

With those words he went left the kitchen leaving Tony gasping on the floor trying to convince his lungs to work right again.

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The police arrived about two hours later which considering how incompetent they usually were was slightly odd. When they asked if his father was available to come down to the coroner's office to identify the body he said that Tony was sick and that he would do it himself. The detective seemed a little unsure of this but then decided that it didn't really matter as long as he got this over with so he could go home. The Zeppo didn't bother trying to correct the man or give him any trouble for his lack of effort as he knew that it would take more than the voice of one seventeen year old kid to change the dumb, deaf and blindness of the local P.D.

When they arrived at the coroner's office it took him less than a second to confirm that the lifeless shell before him was his mother. When they inquired about the matter of claiming the body he immediately took charge and told them that he wanted her body delivered to the local funeral home. They made some fuss about needing to do an autopsy but a hundred bucks in each of their palms took care of that problem. He wasn't even worried that he might be charged with bribing a police officer since he was fairly sure they probably took kick backs like this all the time from the local demons. Neither the coroner or the detective seemed to take offense at this but instead put the money in their pockets and said that 'it looked like an autopsy wouldn't be necessary'. With that Xander left for home intent on catching some Zs before the gang came to pick him up for when they went after Drusilla. It was only now that he was really feeling the drain of the fight with the Cloud ninjas and right now his bed was sounding mighty inviting.  
Hopefully when he got home Tony would be a bit more tolerable and he would be able to get up to his room without much trouble. He didn't really want to have a large mess to clean up tomorrow.

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**_Warehouse, Same Time_**

"No! No! No! NO!" Drusilla screamed as she paced around the room in a frenzy, "Mommy's little children have all gone away! Kitten's coming to kill Mommy!"

She had been like this for awhile now but there was no one really there to hear her as most of her minions were either dead or had long since left to side with more mentally stable masters. It didn't matter anyways because with Kitten coming she knew it wouldn't matter how many children she had to face him. The stars had told her all she needed to know of what had happened and so she knew that the bad little kitten had gotten a lot meaner and stronger in that battle. When he came to see her he would not be happy at all and nothing she did would be able to save her from the darkness. Fleeing the mouth of hell would prove useless. She had no one to take her away from the place that had stolen her Spike. She was too weak herself to drive her lovely Spike's car herself and didn't feel comfortable traveling on a bus with her meals. So all she could really do was wait for her end to come and destroy her with crimson fire.

However she didn't want to let the bad little kitten get away with causing mommy so much trouble. She still had to make him pay! Make him hurt! The only question was how to do this in the little time she had left. For what must have been an hour she stared at the ceiling for the answers, never moving from that spot, until finally a wide smile came across her insane face. The stars had told her that the kitten would soon travel to the hidden world and that there were many lovely creatures there that would love to kill the bad, bad kitten for her. All she had to do was let them know he was coming.  
Moving over to the table in the center of the warehouse she held her palm over it before cutting deeply into it and letting the blood within her spill onto the wood. Once she was satisfied that there was enough blood she used her fingers to draw the symbols the stars had told her about using her spilt blood. It was a series of symbols arranged around a circle in the center and once she finished drawing she pressed her palms together and began to chant a language that died out millennia before she was born. As her voice got louder and louder the symbols began to glow brighter and brighter with each passing second. As her chanting reached yelling status the glow from the symbols became as bright as the sun before causing the blood to evaporate into a crimson mist. The cloud of red did not stay for long and soon it rose to the ceiling and disappeared from sight. Drusilla knew where it was going though. It would go to the serpent and the demon and between the two of them they would kill the kitten for her and she would have her revenge.

"Mommy will have her revenge!" Drusilla said before stumbling into a fit of giggling which changed into outright laughter.

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**_Harris Household, 10:30 a.m._**

_It's time._ Xander thought as he awoke in his bed.

He had managed to get to sleep about two in the morning which meant that he had gotten around eight and a half hours sleep. For most people this would be enough but for someone who had been fighting the night before and was tired from serious chakra use it felt like he had only gotten half as much sleep. His body still ached and while the electrical burns on his forearms were still tender it no longer hurt to use his arms. He'd be fine dealing with whatever last efforts Drusilla sent his way before he finally killed her. Buffy and Willow would be coming around in about an hour and a half so he had until then to get ready. With that in mind he started going through the motions of his morning routine the same way he always had. First down to the kitchen to get some breakfast which today consisted of something simple in the form of honey on toast with a mug of coffee to wash it down with and hopefully wake him up some more. Once that was done he rinsed off the dish and the mug before putting them in the dishwasher along with anything else Tony had put there for someone else to deal with. Once that was out of the way it was about ten to eleven so he headed up to the bathroom to shower. Before the police officers had shown up the previous night he had used a washcloth and some warm water to get rid of all of the visible dirt and blood as well as change into his normal school clothes. He hadn't felt much like cleaning himself up more thoroughly when he had gotten home after the talk at Giles' apartment but now he would have to if he wanted to avoid offending the noses of his friends.

He took his time in the shower, using the hot water to sooth any remaining aching muscles, and once he finished scrubbing away the last of the filth he dried himself off and returned to his room. Once there he faced the temporary conundrum of what to wear when he finished off the walking corpse responsible for bringing those three Cloud ninja to Sunnydale. Most of his ninja weapons would pretty much be useless against the female vampire as they were made of metal rather than wood. While it was true that he could adapt his tactics to make them lethal to Drusilla it would be less efficient than simply bringing a stake with him. The question he had to ask himself though was : did he really want to give that she-devil a quick efficient death or did he want to draw things out and make her suffer? It was a fair question given what he had lost because of her but in the end he refused to lower himself to her level. Changing into some of his durable normal clothes the only item of ninja gear he was determined to wear was his mother's forehead protector. It was a symbol both of what he had gained and lost and he would make sure that Drusilla had the symbol of Konoha at the front of her mind before she turned to dust.

After making sure it was secure on his forehead he slipped a stake in each pocket while concealing a kunai underneath his belt beneath his shirt. He might not be willing to lower himself to the vampire's level but that didn't mean he was going to take any chances either. For all he knew the crazy witch had enlisted the help of some of the local demons in the last couple of hours and while stakes might hurt them it would not kill them very easily. He was almost tempted to take a few more things when the thought of confronting a few demons instead of confronting a single vampire crossed his mind but he shook his head of those ideas. Thanks to the memories he inherited from the spell on Halloween and his newly awakened Sharingan abilities he'd be able to handle anything short of a Jounin. By the time he was finished preparing it was eleven thirty in the morning and while he thought that he would have to find something to kill time with a ringing doorbell at the front door made it unnecessary.

When he opened the front door he found Willow, Buffy and Giles standing there looking a little surprised but he couldn't figure out why.

"Hey guys! A little early aren't you? It's still half an hour 'til noon." Xander asked as he looked at each of their faces to try and discern why they would be here early.

"We were .. that is to say .. What I'm trying to say is .." Giles stuttered as he tried to figure out how to say what he wanted to say gently.

"We were afraid you'd leave early and try and take Drusilla down on your own." Buffy said as she managed to answer his question the same way she usually dealt with things.

Bluntly. 

Despite how much he wanted to he couldn't very well deny that he had been tempted to plan to do exactly that but eventually he had decided that he would do this by the book. Thinking only with rage and revenge on your mind would only get a person killed. A clear, calm and focused mind was what a warrior needed to win a fight. At least that is what he believed even though he knew that when he was in the actual thick of things he tended to let his emotions do the fighting for him. He hoped that eventually during the course of his ninja training he would change that but until he did he would have to rely on his friends to bail him out of trouble when he got in trouble.

"While my test scores in school may beg to differ I'm not stupid enough to go after vamp lady alone." Xander said with half of his trademarked grin, "Besides who else is going to cheer me on while I toss her around the warehouse?"

This got them all to giggle and erased the worry they had been feeling when they thought he might have done something stupid.

"Well we certainly can't let you fight without the support of your comrades now can we?" Giles said rhetorically with a slight grin still plastered on his face.

"Well then let's go!" Xander said and with that they headed for the warehouse where they would finally put an end to the latest thorn in their collective sides.

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**_Outside the Warehouse, 12:15p.m_**

"So should we knock or what?" Willow asked as she looked at the dark and abandoned looking building they stood in front of.

"Yeah, we'll knock." Xander said with a feral grin before forming a series of hand seals and yelling, "KATON RYUUKA NO JUTSU!"

With his right fire seemed to explode from his body enshrouding it in flames causing the rest of the Scooby gang jump back to avoid getting burned. He only peripherally noticed as he brought his right hand up to his mouth still in the form of the right half of the final seal of the technique. Taking a hold of the flames as though they were something he could control with his mind he exhaled from his mouth and channeled the flames into a horizontal column of fire aimed right at the front doors of the warehouse. It had been awhile since he had last attempted such an advanced fire element attack and he remembered that the only other time he had successfully managed it was on Halloween night. The two other times he had attempted to perform it he could never quite manage to control the flames correctly and they would just splash up against the target like water against solid stone. After those two failures he had moved on to lesser techniques that he would have better luck being able to perform successfully. Why he would be able to perform it so well now he didn't know but it didn't matter to him right now. What mattered to him at that moment was getting in there and finally claiming his revenge for the death of his mother. Cutting off the flow of chakra to the technique he watched as the flames died away leaving a circular hole in the front doors of the warehouse.

"Xander! A little warning might've been nice!" Buffy exclaimed as she looked down and inspected her clothes for damage.

"Sorry." He said and without further words he pulled the two stakes from his pocket and with one in each hand charged into the warehouse.

He didn't mean to be so short with Buffy but with Drusilla so close his patience was at an all time low. There was no way to know what the vampire had in there or if she had some kind of escape route planned for just such a problem as a raid like this one. He refused to give her the chance to escape and taunt him in his dreams with how she had caused his mother's death and escaped judgment. Once he was inside it took his eyes a moment to adjust to the difference in lighting but when that finally passed he found the warehouse surprisingly vacant. He had expected a few minions hanging around or maybe some demons but it looked completely empty. For a moment fear gripped him as he wondered if Drusilla had gotten away in the hours when he was sleeping at home.

_DAMN IT! I knew I should have come here last night and finished her off!_ Xander thought furiously as his eyes shot around the structure looking for any sign of his prey.

When his normal eyes failed him he channeled chakra to his eyes and awakened his birthright, Sharingan. He knew from his inherited memories that the bloodline limit had the ability to see through taijutsus, ninjutsus and genjutsus. If Drusilla was using some kind of spell or illusion to conceal her location in here he should be able to see through it and find her. It took him awhile but eventually he spotted an area in the floor that seemed to become transparent when he looked at it. With a ghost like image of concrete on top of it he could see a trap door that was of a size to suggest a staircase or a ladder leading to a lower level. Running over to the trap door despite the cries from behind him from his friends to slow down and wait for them he grabbed the metal handle despite the illusion and ripped the door open. He was elated to find that his Sharingan had not lied because before him there was a staircase leading downward and there were lights on down there as well. Gripping the stake in his hand tighter he took the steps two at a time while letting his blood red eyes scan everything in his field of vision for traps or surprises.

As soon as he reached the bottom of the staircase he didn't have to look far because sitting right at the foot of a luxurious bed was his prey looking as though she didn't have a care in the world.

"Oooh! Has kitten come to play? Mummy likes to play!" Drusilla babbled in her usual insane way of speaking.

"This is far from a game vampire! By putting out a contract on my life you have taken away someone very important to me." Xander said infusing his fury into his words, "The time has come to pay for what you brought about last night."

"Me? Mummy's nasty kitten started this game. If kitten hadn't killed my Spike his mummy would be alive right now." Drusilla said as though she really believed that his mother's death was his fault.

Xander was seeing red and it wasn't because he was still channeling chakra to his eyes either. His heart was aflame with rage that this undead corpse would dare blame him for his mother's death while at the same time a voice in the back of his mind said she might have a point. While he had not been in his right mind when he had killed Spike it didn't change the fact that he had killed the Billy Idol look-a-like. He should have expected that there would be some consequences coming from Drusilla for taking her boyfriend away from her. If someone had killed Buffy or Willow he probably would have sought revenge as well. The only thing that kept him from walking away from this was the one thing that made all the difference between him and the vampire. When he sought revenge on someone he didn't target innocents nor would he hire sloppy assassins who would choose to play with their target's emotions before killing him or her. He would do the job himself! So if this pale soulless corpse thought that she would be able to play mind games using that as ammunition she was sorely mistaken.

A look in her eye told him she realized that her ploy had failed but for some reason she didn't seem to care. She was standing not ten feet away from a ninja capable of turning her to ash in the blink of an eye and she seemed perfectly calm. His mind was going mach three trying to figure out how she could be so calm in such a perilous situation when it suddenly came to him. Looking at the vampire and the area around her he spotted a cable he hadn't seen beforehand leading from just behind her off the bed and towards the far wall. Following the wire his eyes widened as he saw what the cord led to and on its own his body turned him around and he ran as fast as he could up the stairwell. He didn't even slow down as he saw the gang coming his way with looks of surprise and confusion on their faces. Only Buffy seemed to catch a glimpse of what was going on but that was enough for her to pick Willow up off the ground and make a break for the hole he had made. It was left up to him to pick Giles up as there was no way the old Watcher would be fast enough to evade what was coming their way.

The seconds seemed to stretch into hours as the four of them made their way to the exit. Xander was pushing himself to his limit trying to use his chakra to increase his speed while praying that his training would prove its value right here and now. Moment to moment he watched as the door inched closer and all sound was slowed until it was completely undecipherable. Sweat began to trickle down the side of his face as the pressure began to mount inside of him. Would they make it out in time? Was this to be their final moment among the living? To these questions he had no answers but he knew that they would be resolved one way or another in the next few seconds.

Once the distance closed to less than twelve feet he leapt through the hole relieved that Buffy had been in front of him so she could make it out first. She was already beginning to put distance between herself and the building and it was growing by the foot. Turning in mid-air he made sure that he would take the brunt of the impact when he and Giles landed but not to the point where he might risk death by debris for Giles. Two seconds later he and the Watcher touched down and right at that moment the warehouse exploded outwards sending glass, metal and various other materials into the air. Letting go of G-Man he rose to one knee and frantically drew upon his ninja memories for the skill of deflecting projectiles with a kunai. Bringing the kunai from the small of his back he brought it to bear just in time to knock a steel rod away from them before it could pierce Giles' upper leg. He wanted to spare a glance over at Buffy and Willow to see how they were faring but he couldn't spare the concentration. The pieces of glass, wood and metal were coming at him with great speed and if it weren't for his Sharingan eyes he would not be able to predict their courses or even see them as anything more than a blur. Fortunately the blast quickly wore itself out and in the end he managed to keep the Watcher safe. All that was left of the building was a pile of flaming debris and shattered walls.

Looking over to where Buffy and Willow were he could see that they had the foresight to duck behind some empty oil barrels that the locals used for trash cans. Barrels like that were pretty durable and it would take something a lot stronger moving a lot faster to pierce it deep enough to hurt either of them.

Still they had been incredibly lucky. If he had been any slower to notice the detonator in Drusilla's hand they wouldn't have made it out in time. All five of them would have gotten blown up with the warehouse and the lady vampire would have had her revenge in spades. However it puzzled him why she hadn't pressed the button earlier. With her undead senses she should have heard his entrance and heard them moving around above her long before he found the hidden trap door. It was almost as though she had wanted to see him face to face before she pressed the button. He shook his head and decided to leave that conundrum for later. After all he could spend an entire month trying to figure out that wacky lady vamp's reasons but it wouldn't serve any purpose now. He hadn't seen any other way out of the lower level where he had found her and since she hadn't run past him when he and the Scoobies were escaping. She must have been dusted in the blast either or else she was crushed by concrete or cremated by the flames.

While he didn't like the fact that he hadn't been the one to deliver the killing blow he felt a definite sense of closure now that all the people responsible for his mother's death were in hell. He still hurt, there was no way he could not be hurting after such a profound loss, but at least with the death of Druisilla the healing process could begin.

That had to count for something right.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

**_Unknown Location, That Day_**

The red mist had appeared before him through the very wall of his room and he knew by sight that it was some form of magic. However he knew it was not meant to harm him but to instead to deliver him a message. Nothing surprised him anymore. However he would admit to some mild interest as to who had sent him this message and why. He trusted that he would receive the answers to his questions before the message ended.

Once the red mist finished coming through the wall it began to concentrate in one spot roughly eye level with him. It was almost like blood that had been transformed into a mist was coming together again to form the single body of blood it had once been. When it was finally done it formed a perfect sphere but only for a moment before it flattened and took the form of a rectangular plate. It took only a moment for it to become reflective like a mirror and then the message revealed itself to him. It came in the form of a series of images and scenes. The first was of a boy on the verge of adulthood wearing a flak jacket and wielding a kunai in each hand. He could tell that the boy knew how to use the weapons as was evident when he deflected three shuriken coming at him from an unknown source. The next showed the same boy fighting what appeared to be another ninja whose clothes identified him as coming from the Hidden Village of Cloud. The young man surprisingly enough managed to perform the water dragon blast technique without a large body of water to draw upon. However it was the next scene that aroused and captured his interest as the young man raised his head and revealed crimson eyes with two dots with tails in each iris.

"Sharingan. Interesting." He said without letting his focus waver from the scenes unfolding in front of him.

The next few scenes proved that the young man did indeed possess the bloodline limit ability called Sharingan as he was shown to have copied an attack the Cloud ninja used only moments earlier. This intrigued him for there were only supposed to be two surviving members of the Uchiha massacre and this boy was neither Uchiha Susuke nor his brother Itachi. It was quite a mystery but it played into his plans well assuming he could arrange for this young man to be in Konoha at the right time. It would not take him long to discover this young man's identity nor where he lived. Once that was done a few minor bits of manipulation should induce the proper results. Still he would have to test the boy more thoroughly than what these images had shown. After all only the best would do for his plans.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

**_An Unknown Forest, Same Time _**

As he watched the scenes in the mirror of blood fade and the liquid drop to the ground with no special flare there were no perceivable emotions on his face. That was because he had buried such bothersome things a long time ago and now only followed his mind and his ambitions. Still, while his emotions might not have been affected, his mind did find what he saw slightly puzzling. He knew which members of the Uchiha clan still lived and which were dead. The young man in the image was definitely not Uchiha Susuke. Closing his eyes he mentally called up an image of the unknown Uchiha and compared it with the faces he remembered from his past. One after the other flowed past his mind's eye and it wasn't until he came to a series of faces belonging to the head Uchiha family that a face was similar enough to satisfy him. It was of a woman who was supposed to have been killed in a fire seventeen years ago but the similarity in their features was unmistakable.

He had heard of the search that was conducted in the area surrounding the building in case she had somehow managed to escape but nothing was found. Not at all surprising as she was well known for her inventive strategies and the modifications she made to certain techniques. It was said that when one faced her they should not confine their planning to techniques as they were described in scrolls but rather to think outside the box as to how those techniques could be altered to serve another purpose. In any case after five days of searching the area thoroughly the Hunter-nins had found nothing. While it was true that no bodies were found in the ruins of the building it was presumed that with so hot a fire that the remains had merely been reduced to ashes. He had never been entirely satisfied with that conclusion but as it was a relatively trivial matter at the time he had forgotten about it up until now.

If the images he had been shown were true it would mean that Uchiha Jun'ko and her firstborn son had survived the fire, if they had been inside in the first place, and had been in hiding ever since. An interesting turn of events but nothing that warranted more than a passing thought at the moment. He and his comrade had a more important matter to attend to that rendered this new Uchiha irrelevant. Not that the boy would have mattered if they had no prior obligations as he did not care about anyone back in Konoha or anywhere else for that matter. In any case the message in blood had delayed the two of them long enough and it was time to resume the search.

"Come." He said and with that they both seemed to vanish into thin air.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

**_Sunnydale, One Week Later, Johnson Funeral Home _**

_Well, this place is packed!_ Xander thought sarcastically in his best and only suit as he looked around to see who else had shown up for his mother's funeral.

He had been worked hard all week putting the preparations for this in order and had been surprised at how much work it took. Fortunately the employees here at the Funeral Home were helpful and G-Man filled him in on any parts that were missing from the official schtick that the Home employees left out. When it had come to the decision of burial or cremation he hadn't hesitated when choosing the latter as he recalled that was the traditional way of things back in Konoha. He had known that his mother had been living as an American for almost two decades but she had been born in the Hidden Village of Konoha and so he had decided to follow her homeland's customs. So there on a table at the head of the room was a suitably beautiful yet proper funerary urn containing his mother's remains. Placed in front of it was the best picture of her he could find from the old family photo albums at home and some pictures he had managed to find hidden away in some of his mother's personal things. He was pretty sure they had been taken in Konoha and it showed her standing behind three kids about thirteen years of age from the looks of them and they were all smiling. The team consisted of two guys and one girl with a look on the face of the girl's that seemed to say 'I'm going to get you for this after the picture is taken'. Looking at each of the boys' faces he was pretty that they knew they were in trouble as well. One guy had rather unkempt hair that looked like it hadn't been combed or groomed that day. Along with the rather sickly look Xander thought he should have been in a hospital rather than running around as a genin. Still he could see the kunai holster on his hip and the forehead protector peeking out from beneath his hair so he had to have at least graduated from the academy.

The girl in the was a wild looking one with wild untamed hair and eyes that looked like something you would see on the other side of a cage in a zoo. The markings on her face gave her an even more primal look, a jungle girl look, than anything the hair or eyes could convey by themselves. In any case she was definitely unique and looked quite capable of pounding her teammates if she was of a mind to do something like that.

The last and final member of the team was the second of the genin guys looked like he was trying hard to seem richer than he actually was. However he could tell that it was all for show and that he was no better off than his teammates were in terms of money and other assets. He had curly blonde hair and blue eyes with a face that made him look like he had just finished a scene in an action film in Hollywood. His clothes though were the most obvious indicators of his standing for while they looked expensive they were frayed in a couple of areas and patched together in other areas.

There were no names written on the back of the photo as he had thought there might have been so he was left wondering who her students might have been. In any case though it was the best photo he was able to find so after a visit to the local developing store to take out and enlarge just his mother's face from the photo he was done. He had thought about the potential problem of the forehead protector in the picture but that was quickly solved by wrapping a dark purple ribbon around the top of the picture to hide the item from sight. He didn't know whether or not there would be anyone here from Konoha who'd care one way or the other but he decided not to take chances. Besides with his mother being so deep under cover she probably only got in contact with them every few months or even once ever six months. Depending on when she last made a report to them it could be anywhere from a week to over five months before they might suspect something was wrong.

That didn't make him any happier about the fact that aside from the gang and a few people from where his mother had worked the place was devoid of anyone else. He knew that the Uchiha clan wasn't here because they were on the other side of the Pacific Ocean and didn't know that she had died. However he had thought that there might have been at least a few of the Harris family here but when he recalled how his dad tended to act most of the time Tony had probably been disowned years ago. After all if he had been in their position he wouldn't want anything to do with that slob either. In fact as soon as he reached eighteen in a little under two years he was going to move out and find a place of his own to live in. It wouldn't matter if Tony shaped up in the next few weeks and tried acting like a civilized human being. There were just too many bad memories attached to that house for him to live in it any longer than he had to.

Walking up to the entrance to the room he looked up and down the hallway for any stragglers but when he saw none he figured he might as well get things started. He had already delayed things for an hour and he had only an hour and a half before he used up the time he had reserved this room for. Sighing in disappointment at the turnout he closed the doors and signaled the employee of the funeral home to start. Taking his seat by Willow he smiled as she placed a comforting hand on his arm and smiled at him. She more than anyone else knew what this was like for him and it meant a lot that she was there beside him. He just hoped that he'd be able to endure this a second time when he fulfilled the promise he made to her that night.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

**_One Hour Later _**

"Thank you for coming." Xander said to the last person who had come to him to extend their condolences at his loss.

"It was the least we could do for your mother." Mr. Harrison, his mother's employer, said with true remorse, "She was a lovely woman despite her ... situation ... at home. We'll all be the poorer now that she's gone."

"Yeah." Xander said trying to keep his composure.

It took him a few minutes before he could trust his body to act normally but when things finally did settle he went over to where Giles was standing with the others. After their initial condolences they had gathered in a corner of the room to wait for him. Now that that was done with he had to ask Giles something only the Watcher could know or if he didn't know how to get the information he needed.

"Giles?" he asked as he tried to carefully get Rupert's attention.

"Yes Xander?" Giles said inquiringly as the man no doubt wondered what was on the Zeppo's mind at a time like this.

"I have a favor to ask you and it might mean breaking a few Watcher rules in the process." Xander said trying to convey that this was a request rather than a demand.

"For a friend as dear as you I think I can deal with those old buggers." Giles said meaning every word especially his opinion of the Council over in Britain.

"I need for you to find where Konoha is on a map." Xander said with the importance of this request clear in his eyes, "It won't be on any map I can get in a store but I thought that maybe the Watchers Council might have one. After all you said that the Council and the Villages have a hands off policy towards each other so I figured that'd mean the Watchers would know where the Villages were roughly located. I know that Konoha's exact location wouldn't have been revealed but a rough area would give me someplace to start looking."

This took the Watcher by surprise a little but soon enough Giles figured it out and a small proud smile appeared on his face.

"While it will indeed be difficult to acquire what you asked for I promise you that I will make every effort to find out where Konoha is located." Giles replied with sincerity and determination, "It will take some time as I will have to do so without alerting the upper echelons of the Council. Give me three months and I promise I will have what you need by then."

Three months was a little longer than Xander had expected but if that was as fast as Giles could get the information then that would have to do. It would give him time to prepare and tie up some loose ends around here before he left. He knew that it was always around spring time when the annual apocalypse was scheduled to hit so before he left he would have to make sure to take out all the local threats that might cause problems for the gang while he was away. It would be a busy three months but he was sure he'd be okay and since it would probably be that long before the high school was back in one piece he wouldn't miss any school. That would come when he would miss the last three months of classes when he went away to Konoha. Surprisingly he wasn't all that worried about missing classes or perhaps being held back a grade or even being expelled for being missing for so long. To him taking his mother home to her family was more important and he had to admit he was somewhat eager to see his mom's home village himself. He had images of the place in his head from the spell on Halloween but he had no doubt it would be much more impressive when he saw it in person. He even was wondering if he might be able to learn a few new techniques while he was there. After all he would be able to get it right from the source rather than trying to piece together something half decent from false memories. All in all it would be a good experience and one he was willing to be patient before receiving.

"Thanks Giles." Xander said almost missing that he called the Watcher by his preferred name rather than G-Man.

"You're quite welcome." Giles said placing a comforting hand on the Zeppo's right shoulder.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

**_Three Months Later, Giles' Apartment, Morning _**

_What a crazy three months it's been!_ Xander thought to himself as he stepped up to the Watcher's front door.

He was almost glad that this day was finally here because it would mean a break from the hellmouthy stuff that had been thrown at the Scooby gang lately. First it had been Joyce's robotic boyfriend Ted but that had been nipped in the bud when he and the tin man had finally met for the first time. He had immediately sensed the absence of any kind of energy in the man either mental or physical and knew that the guy wasn't human. For a little while he had considered just letting things be and despite his common sense accepting the possibility that this machine meant no harm. However when he had overheard some rather harsh words spoken by the tin man to Buffy he decided to disregard position A and move on to position D for destroy. It hadn't been too hard to get rid of him as he only had to wait until he left the Summers home to go 'home' and then fry his metal ass with the lightning bolt technique he had picked up from the Cloud ninjas. He hadn't seen the need to tell Buffy or Joyce when he saw them the next day and merely proposed the possibility that the guy had been called out of town. He had been tempted to say eaten by the local demons but since Joyce was still in the dark about this town's nightlife such an excuse was useless. In the end though everything returned to normal until the next bit of badness to find its way up from beneath the school.

This time it had turned out to be some kind of prehistoric demon called a bazoor and it had taken over the mind of their biology professor. He had passed out eggs proposing that the class learn something about parenthood by taking care of their egg-children. Unfortunately though it turned out that the class was taking care of the bazoor's kids and when they hatched they took over their 'parent's' minds. The then co-opted pretend parents were used as slave labor to either turn more people into slaves or help dig the prehistoric demon out of the ground. Unfortunately he couldn't credit his ninja skills on this discovery though but rather his supreme laziness at having to do such a lame assignment. To save time and not have to worry about breaking the egg he had hardboiled the sucker the very first night killing the baby thing inside. That had led to him and Buffy being the only ones not enslaved which almost led to their being knocked out and forcibly enlisted into the army of the bazoor by his best bud Willow and G-Man. Thankfully in this instance his training did pay off as it alerted him to the surprise attack by his friend and his surrogate father in one fell swoop. Two pulled punches and one long piece of rope later and both of the thinking impaired slaves were tied up and in the cage where the weapons locker was located. They hadn't needed to look for very long before finding where the source of the problem was so while he kept the mind slaves from circulating the eggs to turn all of Sunnydale into zombies Buffy went to work on the demon. To make a long slayage short: demon dead, idiot vampire cowboys either dead or long gone and Buffy wound up with the biggest dry cleaning bill known to teenage kind.

Then to top off the list of weirdness of the last three months they wound up having to deal with one of the classics, a werewolf. Needless to say Buffy felt particularly driven to find the werewolf and deal with it given the rather gruesome leftovers of its attacks. Needless to say seeing the photos of the bodies shot by the coroner made all of the Scoobies feel rather nauseous. Still Giles had insisted that the person who the werewolf was during the day might be completely unaware of what they did once they completed the transformation. With that they had begun to sift through the entire student population of Sunnydale looking for possible werewolves in human clothing and once they had a small enough list it was divided up with each Scooby getting their own list. They then split up and went their separate ways to interview the students they had been given looking for the behavioral patterns that Giles had mentioned when reading from a text on the topic of lycanthropes. Needless to say it had been an uncomfortable experience with the absolute worst happening when he had to try and find out if Larry the school jock was the werewolf.

Hopefully by the time he got back from straightening things out in Konoha he would be over the revelation that the football player was gay and now thought that Xander was too. He still shuddered at the thought that Larry might start looking at him with interest now but buried that thought under the things he would see and discover on his upcoming trip. He had to admit he was eager to see the world his mom had grown up in and that he had only received a glimpse of from his Halloween memories. What he could recall from that night had him thinking that while dangerous the world of the Hidden Villages was also a world of adventure. Battles between warriors with incredible powers, new customs and the most important thing as far as he was concerned would be beautiful ninja women everywhere. After all a person had to be pretty fit in order to be a ninja which meant lean muscled bodies and if his mother's students were any hint the women would definitely be good looking. Plus he was kinda hoping that before he had to get back to Sunnydale that he might he able to receive some kind of training. After all he had pretty much been just making up training exercises as he went. Of the routines he did remember from Halloween had been long since used up and he could fairly competently do the tree climbing exercise now without falling on his head. Still he wanted to be better and what better place than the strongest of the Hidden Villages to learn new things and get stronger.

He had gotten a call from Giles earlier this morning and the Watcher had informed him that he had finally managed to get a good idea of where the Hidden Villages were located on a map. So here he was knocking on the Watcher's door hoping that G-Man had managed to narrow down Konoha's location down quite a bit or it might take him awhile to get there. The door opened and he found the learned man in question looking a little run down as though he had been pulling an all nighter.

"What's the what G-man? You look like hell." Xander said as the Watcher gave him a non-verbal invitation and stepped aside to let the Zeppo enter.

"I was up all night with a friend of mine in the Council trying to piece together several clues concerning the locations of the Hidden Villages." Giles said as he walked over to his desk and sipped a cup of tea that had been there, "Examining the actual documents pertaining to the treaty with the Hidden Villages proved impossible for my contacts so we were forced to look at reports involving contact with ninjas. Excluding interactions that strayed too far from countries that spoke Japanese, Chinese or similar languages we were able to narrow the likely area in question down quite a bit."

Giles then retrieved a map and circled in red ink a fair bit south of both China and Japan was an area with an arrow pointing to it labeled 'Hidden Villages'.

"That's still a pretty big area to cover Giles." Xander said a little disappointed at the ground he would have to sift through to find Konoha.

For a moment it looked like the Watcher was going to say something sarcastic or snippy but Giles visibly calmed himself down and reinforce his composure.

"It was the best we could do with so many vague references and odd comments. Konoha and the other Hidden Villages are called 'hidden' for a reason Xander." Giles said as he took his glasses off to clean them, "Still if it helps any you might consider matching the symbols of the Hidden Villages to the different forms of terrain present in the highlighted area. This small desert would seem to be an ideal place for the Hidden Village of Sand and this group of islands would seem to indicate the Hidden Village of Mist."

"So the Hidden Village of Leaf aka Konoha would likely be in this densely forested area here." Xander said finally catching on to what the Watcher meant, "Still it doesn't look like I'll be able to get there by train or by air so I'll probably wind up having to hoof it there by foot."

"Perhaps but at least you won't have to swim across the Pacific Ocean to get there." Giles said as he removed something else from the pile of papers on the desk, "Once my contact and I narrowed down the area enough I took the liberty of booking you a seat on plane that should take you to the airport closest to this area. Consider it a contribution from the entire 'Scooby Gang'."

"Giles, it's too much, I can't possibly .. "Xander said as he tried to refuse the expensive plane ticket that had probably cost his friends their paychecks and allowances for a month.

"You bloody will take it and you will be on that plane tomorrow at six p.m!" Giles said as he all but stuff the ticket into his jean pocket, "You've been through a terrible ordeal losing your mother like that and taking her remains to Konoha will aid you in gaining a certain amount of closure. Besides with your help we've managed to take a sizeable bite out of the local demon population so we can afford to spare you for a few months."

"Thanks Giles." Xander said not knowing any better way to express his thanks for the lengths his friends had gone to help him take his mother's remains to Konoha.  
To this Giles simply smiled as if to say his thanks was repayment enough for what he went through to get the information on Konoha.

"Well if the plane leaves tomorrow at six in the evening I better start packing and get a bus ticket to the airport." Xander said as he began making a mental list of the things he would take with him on the trip aside from the obvious.

"Until tomorrow then." Giles said with the proud grin not leaving his face.  
Taking the map with the indicated area circled Xander left Giles' apartment and headed for home to start getting things together. It would be better to be packed and ready to go first thing tomorrow since the bus ride would take a few hours and there was bound to be line ups at the airport itself. The last thing he wanted was to miss his flight and then try to get an even later flight. That would just be too troublesome.

_Konoha here I come!_ He thought with a smile as he walked down the street in the direction of his house.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

**_Harris Household, Two Hours Later _**

_Let's see, is there anything else I need to bring with me?_ Xander thought as he looked at the half filled backpack on his bed.

He had gotten home about an hour and a half ago and since then had been filling up an old backpack that Tony had bought back when he was still reasonably sober and was interested in some kind of family camping trip. However when a business deal fell through shortly afterward the adult sized backpack went into storage and Tony went to the liquor store. Still it was in fairly good condition all things considered and would suit him just fine on his long walk to Konoha from the airport. He had started with the basics of no less than four sets of clothes, two jackets, a top of the line First Aid Kit, standard male bathroom stuff and his iPod since he was pretty sure that the Hidden Villages had electricity. After all there was a fair bit of wilderness between both the Hidden Villages and the normal non-ninja villages and since he wouldn't have any company on this trip he needed something to keep himself sane besides training.

He had pretty much decided that if he was going to deliver such solemn news to the Uchiha clan and the rest of Konoha then he better be prepared just in case he had to tie up some of his mother's loose ends. There were probably at least of few jobs his mom would have been expected to do once she returned from her long term mission to Sunnydale and in her name he would complete them in her place. It was on that note that he went over to his closet and took out the Konoha uniform he still had from Halloween and packed it in with the rest of the clothes. Not only might the uniform be more practical once he started walking to Konoha in terms of durability and climate but it just might discourage any bandits or robbers from attacking him. After all attacking a civilian traveling the dirt roads was one thing but trying to pick a fight with a ninja dressed in a uniform of a chuunin or Jounin was quite another. True he might be in a bit of trouble if they wound up attacking him en masse but figured he could probably lose them in the surrounding forests if he had to make a break for it.

Once the uniform was in he looked at the picture he had left on his bedside table showing his mom back in Konoha and her three students. Deciding it might help to convince the ninja in the Leaf village of his identity he slipped it into a side pocket on the backpack. That made the backpack a little over halfway full at the moment and he decided to leave it at that for now since he planned to place the funerary urn containing his mother's ashes inside it. Once inside he would use a few other knick-knacks to provide cushioning and protection before closing the top for good. He didn't like the fact that he'd be letting it out of his sight during the flight across the Pacific but he knew he'd stand out of if he held it in his lap the entire way there. He figured it would probably be safer if he kept it hidden and out of sight until he got to Konoha since any other way would either be too difficult or draw too much attention to him. He would still watch his backpack like a hawk but he would also try to keep himself from making it look too important and valuable. After all a thief is more likely to go after something if he sees that the person guarding it is going to extreme lengths to keep it safe. If you treat something like it is common or not very valuable a thief is more likely to ignore it in favor of a more alluring prize. Unless of course its shiny or made of gold in which case it won't matter how hard a person tries to make something look commonplace it'll still probably be swiped.

_Of course if anyone tries to steal my mother's ashes I'll turn them to ashes and scatter them to the wind!_ Xander thought fiercely as he almost pitied the fools who dared to lay a hand on the one thing he cared about even more than his own life.

Now that packing was out of the way he figured the next thing to do would be to have a night on the town with the gang as a sort of farewell bash. He could never leave them for good but there was a good chance he'd be gone for at least five to six months or perhaps even a year depending on how things went in Konoha. If that was to be the case then he was going to have such a blast with his buds he that the memories would keep him company until he got back. Putting the backpack away in the closet he left the house and began to walk to Buffy's place where he figured both the Slayer and Willow were doing girl things in light of it being the weekend. Maybe if he was lucky they would just be getting out of bed even at this hour and he could see them in their pajamas.

_Nah! Even if they were walking around in their pajamas they'd probably kill me for even thinking of looking ninja skills or no ninja skills._ Xander thought as he shuddered at the image of both his best bud and his own personal hero chasing after him with both blunt and sharp objects.

Once he made it up to the Summers' house he knocked on the door and waited patiently for either Joyce or Buffy to open the door. He figured that they'd start things off with a movie before heading over to the bronze and then top the night off with some TV before heading to their respective beds. When the door opened he almost on reflex alone formed the seals necessary for the most powerful fire attack he could think of when he looked at what could only be a thing standing in the doorway.

"What's with you Xander?" came the confused voice of his friend Buffy from beneath the icky green slime and hair made of plastic rolls.

"N-nothing! Nothing at all!" Xander said quickly as he tried to look inconspicuously in any direction other than directly at the Slayer.

He had known that some beauty care products that women bought made them look ghastly when applied but there was no way he was going to say that to them out loud. He could only hope that when all the goop came off and the rollers were taken out that it would be worth it because if it turned out it only made things worse he was going to have a hard time not reacting to it.

"So what's up?" Buffy asked still standing in the doorway staring at him as though she were trying to deduce why he was acting so strangely.

"Well I just wanted to thank you and Willow for chipping in on the plane ticket and wanted to know if you guys were interesting in a night on the town tonight." Xander replied while trying to keep his eyes focused on Buffy's eyes.

"Sure! We were already planning to take you out Bronzing tonight so this'll just make things all the more fun." Buffy replied with a smile that did little to make him ignore the goop on her face, "So what time do you want to head out?"

"Well there's a movie at quarter to seven at the theatre that's about two hours long called 'Deep Rising' we could go to." Xander suggested as his mind flipped through the previews he had seen of the movie on TV, "Then after than we can hit the Bronze for some dancing and tunes before strolling back here for a threesome night cap."

"That's a check for the movie and the Bronze but I'm afraid Willow and I will have to take a rain check on the group night cap." Buffy replied with humor in her voice both recognizing his last suggestion as a joke and retaliating in kind

"Story of my life!" Xander said dramatically before turning to leave, "So I'll come by around quarter after six?"

"Sure! See you then." Buffy said before going back into the house and closing the door.

_Let's see it's about two in the afternoon right now so that means I've got about four hours to kill until I pick up the girls._ , Xander thought as he walked down the street, _Might as well take a stroll to Mr. Wells' office to see what he wants._

Mr. Wells was the family attorney and accountant. After the third time Tony had been charged with disorderly conduct his mom had decided to keep Wells on retainer for emergencies. So far the man had managed to keep Tony out of jail and in community service programs to make up for making a mess every time he went to the bar and got drunk. Now though with his mother's death he had also come to be the person who would be handling her last will and testament which was apparently why the man called early in the morning. Apparently his mom had left him something that had to be handed over in person rather than just stored somewhere until he was ready to look at it. For a moment he had thought about pulling the 'bad connection' routine since he didn't like returning to the concept of a will and his mother being dead. With all the excitement defending the Hellmouth had provided he had managed to keep his mind off the events that happened in the High School courtyard and simply enjoy life. Now though it looks like he was being forced by some higher power to face his trip and his mother's last wishes all at once. He sighed in frustration but decided it would be for the best for him to get it over with sooner rather than later. After all he would be spending time with his girls later tonight so that would get rid of any funk the meeting with Mr. Wells brought out in him.

With that in mind he headed for Sunnydale's main street where the man's office was located.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

**_The Office of Mr. Donald Wells, Attorney, Half an Hour Later_**

"Ah Alex! I'm glad you were able to make it!" Mr. Wells said from behind his desk and it looked like a whirlwind had hit it.

Wells wasn't exactly a stickler for tidiness but for some reason he was still able to find what he was looking for no matter how chaotic looking his office was at the time. Still he was a kind enough old man who never really seemed as old as he looked from the way he carried on. On the surface he looked to be well past his fifties but he moved about the room like he was half as old as that. Xander had once asked how the man managed to be so active at his age but the aged man merely laughed and said it was because of his wife's tuna surprise. The man had then egged him on to guess what the surprise was and when the Zeppo had finally asked Wells had replied 'there is no tuna in it! No tuna at all!' and just laughed. From there going to the old man's office hadn't been so bad even if it was to deal with the latest embarrassing escapade of Tony's as the reason. It made him wonder what was so important that he had to see Mr. Wells today.

"Well you were pretty insistent on the phone and I figured that given all the hell Tony has put you through over the years the least I could do to pay you back was show up." Xander said as he sat down in the visitor's chair in front of Wells' desk.

"Oh it hasn't been that bad trying to keep your father out of trouble!" Wells said with a light chuckle, "Besides its been great for business! A lot of other men in this town seem to have similar troubles and once they heard how well I got Tony Harris out of trouble they were practically breaking down the door!"

"Mr.Wells? I know you didn't call me down here to talk about the silver lining of keeping my dad out of jail." Xander said not liking one bit the stalling tactics this guy was using, "I have a flight to catch tomorrow evening and a night on the town to spend with my friends this evening so if we could get right to the point I'd appreciate it."

Wells seemed a bit disappointed that pleasantries and small talk were over with so quickly but at the same time he realized that the American Uchiha had things to do and places to go.

"Very well. You want direct, I can give you direct." Wells said as he picked a metal box up from behind the desk and placed it in front of Xander.

It looked similar to your standard bank safety deposit boxes at least in shape and size but was obviously meant for something else. It was also fairly large and quite possibly matched the maximum size that the Sunnydale Bank carried. Another difference was that the metal that this box was made out of was obviously meant to be able to take a beating and still not spill its contents all over the floor. Apparently whatever was inside was very important to his mom and she didn't have room at home to hide it so she either left it in the care of the bank or Mr. Wells. Looking for a moment at Wells, who nodded at the box, he opened it up and found that inside were various documents as well as currency of some kind. It didn't look like any kind of dollar bill or coin that he had ever seen but at he assumed it as real as his mom didn't strike him as the sort of person to just give him a rubber band full of funny money. Along with it were some deeds to some land outside of town and some stock in a company whose name he couldn't pronounce. However the item that caught his attention the most was an envelope on top of all the rest with the name 'Uchiha Alexander' written right in the middle of it. Picking it up he looked on the other side to see if there was anything written there but it was bare, nothing written at all. Opening up the envelope he reached in and took out the single sheet of folded paper inside and unfolded it to find a hand written letter in his mother's handwriting.

My darling Alexander,

If you are reading this then it means that I am dead. I specifically instructed Mr. Wells to hold onto the contents of this box for a period of three months as I am sure you would need time to grieve for me. You have always been such a sensitive and emotional little boy, quick to help others and letting your heart guide you in your life. It is because of those qualities that I know you will find what I have to say disturbing but you have a right to know.

I wasn't always Jessica Harris. Until the day you were born I was Uchiha Jun'ko of the Hidden Ninja Village of Konoha. I know that the idea of ninjas and an entire village of them must seem to be something straight out of a movie but I swear that I am telling you the truth. I also know that with my revealing where I come from you may be tempted to travel there and learn more about your heritage. I am both happy that you will see your homeland but at the same time I am afraid of what you may find there. I was not well liked when I left the village to come to America and I am concerned that some of that ill will may be passed on to you when you arrive.

All I can tell you is this rhyme and hope that it will lead you to the truth.

_Love and hate over a ninja hold sway, _  
_Drawing them into darkness and clouding a ninja's way; _  
_Truth however can be cleansing like spring weather, _  
_Seek it my son where the air meets a feather;_

No matter what my son I want you to know that I love you and that I consider myself blessed to have brought such a person into the world.

All my love,

Uchiha Jun'ko

Xander was both touched and a bit puzzled by his mother's letter. His love for his mother only grew with this confirmation of her love for him but the comments she made about what to expect when he got to Konoha were odd. 'Not well liked' left a lot to be desired in terms of details and didn't help him much other than to assume that she had some unfinished rivalries or that some of the ninjas in Konoha just didn't like her for some reason. Still if his mom mentioned it in this letter than she must have felt that it was important for him to know so he made a mental note to be careful when he arrived in the ninja village. As for the rhyme he wasn't sure how it was supposed to lead him to the truth but would be sure to remember it just in case it meant anything to his mother's friends in Konoha. Putting the letter back into the metal box and closing it he turned back to Mr. Wells in case he had anything further to say.

"Your mother was surprisingly insistent that you not receive that box until three months after she had died. I have to admit I was mildly curious about her reasons but since it was none of my business I didn't bother to ask again after the first time." Wells said with a tone that kinda made the Zeppo think the old man had hoped he would come up with a plausible reason, "In any case I also wanted to tell you that virtually all of your mother's assets have been transferred over to you with the exception of a few minor bits and pieces she decided to 'unload' on your father."

The old man had a slight twinkle in his eyes that made Xander imagine the debts and bills his mom probably left Tony to pay off instead of laying it on him. It was definitely a happy image seeing the drunken slob actually have to work for his money and wind up having precious little of it to spend on booze. Who knew? Maybe this financial upset might actually get the asshole to clean himself up to actually resemble a respectable human being. In any case the Zeppo was sure that with what his mother left him he would be able to afford a place of his own when he got back from Konoha so that would also leave the house's mortgage for Tony to deal with as well. That turned Xander's smile into a full-fledged smile and Wells, who had probably predicted the path the Zeppo's mind would take, mirrored it completely.

"Well thanks again Mr. Wells for all the help." Xander said as he rose to his feet and extended his hand for a handshake, "I'll see you again when I get back to look over whatever else pops up while I'm gone."

"Take your time Xander. After all you've been through you deserve some time off to relax and not dwell on the past." Wells said as he took the Zeppo's hand and gave it a firm shake.

"Don't worry Mr. Wells. From here on out my eyes are only set on the future." Xander said with a smile as he imagine how things would change for him once he reached Konoha.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

**_L.A Airport, 5:30p.m, Just Outside Gate 8 _**

"I'll miss you Xander!" Willow said with genuine emotion as she hugged him hard with her head against his chest.

"Me too Wills!" Xander said as he hugged her back but while holding back on his full strength.

After all while the old pre-Halloween Xander could have hugged her as hard as he wanted and only made her uncomfortable the new Xander would probably break her in two. The entire gang had come up with him to the airport to see him off on his trip and combined with the fun they had experienced the night before and he was feeling great. He would still miss them of course and if it was possible he would try and send them letters or postcards whenever he could but he was still looking forward to what lay ahead. New experiences, new peoples and a piece of his mother's past that he was eager to see and immerse himself in. He wasn't entirely sure how long it was going to take him to get from the airport over there to Konoha but he figured it had to be in the ball park of at least a month, maybe two, considering that he was getting there on foot. His Halloween memories confirmed that the area in which the Hidden Villages resided didn't have a vehicle more sophisticated than a bicycle to use. Not one car, train, or bus existed within the boarders of the Hidden Villages. That meant that unless he developed a technique that would allow him to fly to Konoha walking was the only choice.

He had decided that in order to pass the time on his walking journey he would train as best he could along the way. He would do his best to increase his stamina, physical strength and continue to try and master some of the techniques that he was having difficulty in using. It was mostly taijutsu moves and perhaps a few high powered ninjutus that he needed to work on but he want his abilities to grow as much as they could before he arrived in Konoha. He was even toying with another idea dealing with the hand seals used in performing the ninjutsus and genjutus but he hadn't really done any extensive planning on how to make his idea a reality. Still it would give him something to impress Hokage-sama and the other ninjas when he got to his destination. He would also keep his eyes and ears open in case he was able to catch any news about Konoha and the current state of things. He knew from countless movies and books that entering into a country without having a grasp of the politics can cause quite a few problems not the least of which was being run out of town for supporting an enemy of the country you are in at the moment.

"Take care of yourself Xander." Giles said while firmly shaking the younger man's hand.

"Don't worry! This is me you're talking about!" Xander said in perfect deadpan fashion before everyone laughed out loud at the statement.

"Was that meant to reassure us or frighten us Xander?" Buffy asked sarcastically as she wrapped her arms around him in a hug.

"I was thinking a little of both. Seriously though I'll be alright." Xander said as looked at the collective group known as the Scooby gang, "It's a basic skill of a ninja to be able to become invisible to the enemy so the only way trouble will find me is if I want to be found."

"Final boarding call for flight 315. Final boarding call for flight 315 at Gate 8" came the voice of a woman over the personal address system of the airport.

"Well that's my flight. I don't know how long it will take for me to take care of things in Konoha but if I'm not back in two months I'll be sure to mail you guys a letter or something." Xander said as he made sure his backpack with all the things he packed for the trip were stored.

"You better mister!" Willow said playfully as she punched him in the arm.  
With that he walked towards the lady in front of the gate but before he got to her he lifted his right arm and waved goodbye to his friends. It took only a moment for the woman to confirm that this was his flight and told him where his seat was located. As he walked down the corridor that would eventually take him to the plane he decided that if there was no one sitting next to him in the flight that he would put his backpack there. He wanted to keep a close eye on it and its precious cargo and didn't feel comfortable just leaving it in the overhead compartment. The funerary urn that his mother's remains were in was made of metal and had clasps on the side to seal it shut but all it would take would be one solid ding in the side and he'd have to pick up the ashes with a dust buster. As he saw the door to the plane and the stewardess waiting to welcome him on board and wish him a pleasant flight he had only one question on his mind.

_I wonder what movie they're showing on this flight?_ , he thought as he nodded out of habit while ignoring what the stewardess said to him, _I hope it's a martial arts flick. ___

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

**_Guangzhou Airport, Guangzhou, Between the Baggage Claim and the Front Door _**

_Man! I feel like I could just curl up on a bench here and fall asleep no problem!_ Xander thought as he picked up his backpack and slung it over his shoulders.

It had taken a little over eleven hours for the non-stop flight to the Guangzhou Airport and while it might be between five and six in the morning in Sunnydale it was currently five in the evening here in China. Needless to say it was going to take time for his biological clock to adjust to the time difference but in the mean time he planned on checking into a hotel and getting some sleep. Then once he woke up tomorrow he'd rent a car and get himself as close as he could to the area that Giles had highlighted on the map. Hopefully he'd be able to get there without too much trouble and be able to start his training as soon as possible. He had decided on the long flight over that he would train for the entire trip to Konoha rather than just walk there like he would to school in the morning. He wanted to be in near perfect condition when he arrived there just in case his mother had any lingering obligations to the Uchiha clan that he would have to take care of.

While his covert training in Sunnydale might have prepared him for dealing with vamps he knew at best he was an experienced genin by Konoha standards. If he tried to fight anyone of the rank of chuunin or heaven forbid Jounin he'd probably get his ass kicked. There wasn't much he could do about his knowledge of jutsus since all the ones he had retained knowledge of since Halloween he could already perform perfectly. The only thing he could work on really was improving his speed, strength, agility and stamina since not only would it increase the effectiveness of his taijutsu techniques but also increase his chakra capacity. Chakra was the cornerstone of all jutsus performed by ninjas from the Hidden Villages and one's chakra capacity could only be increased through training. The greater one's chakra capacity the more techniques a ninja would be able to perform without tiring themselves out or even do in the first place. His capacity was more or less sufficient at the moment to perform the techniques he knew but some of the higher ones like kage bunshin no jutsu left him more than half drained and that was only after producing two clones. Not exactly a safe move when in the middle of a battle especially if your opponent is a ninja of equal or higher rank. If the next town he planned on staying at was less than a day's walk away he would find something heavy, something metallic maybe, to tie to his feet and arms and then try and move quickly there. If the next town took more than a day to walk to he would run there without the weights and try to cut the time in half. With a little luck the combination of these two exercises would increase his speed, strength and stamina quite a bit by the time he reached Konoha. As for agility he would have to wait until his chakra capacity reached a point where he could use the kage bunshin technique without tiring himself out in the process. He could then have the clone begin throwing kunai and other things at him so he could practice dodging or blocking the weapons.

_Hopefully by the time I get to where I'm going I'll be more help than a problem to the clan. _Xander said as the doors to the airport slid aside.

However he only took two steps before his fatigue and inattention caused him to crash into someone sending the other person to the ground. Looking down in concern he saw that he had apparently knocked a young woman down not more than two years younger than him with short sea blue hair and a kind looking face. She had a suitcase in hand and was somewhat dazed making him feel even worse about knocking her down.

"Sorry about that." Xander said as he extended his right arm to help her up, "I just got here after a eleven hour flight so I'm more than a little out of it."

"It's alright. I should have been more careful as well." The young woman said as she got to her feet with his help.

She had a kind voice that contained shyness as well which instantly reminded him of Willow before Buffy came along but there was also a hidden strength within her as well. It was almost like she was a warrior or a soldier in secret and only put forth this shy façade to deceive others and keep her true nature hidden. In any case though it was none of his business what this young lady did but a part of him couldn't resist making at least one attempt to discover if his suspicions were true.

"I'm sure it was just a fluke. You strike me as a girl who is usually quite careful in everything she does." Xander said as he looked at her face for any sign that his suspicions were correct, "Still you might want to be a bit more careful who you bump into Miss…?"

"Ami, Mizuno Ami." The young woman with the sea blue hair replied with a shy smile, "And you are?"

"Uchiha Xander." Xander replied remembering just in time that in this country it was customary to say your family name first and then your first name.

"Thank you Xander for your concern. I will be sure to keep that in mind." Ami said in a polite and honest voice.

"Well I'm sure you'll want to get moving to make your flight but I hope we meet again Ms. Mizuno." Xander said as he looked at the setting sun in the distance and moved to the side to allow the young woman to get by him.

"Same here." Ami said and with that she walked towards the ticket agents most likely to check on her flight's status and which gate she should go to.

As for him he approached one of the cabbies hanging out in front of the main entrance and asked to be taken to the best but affordable hotel in the city. After all even with all the money he had inherited from his mother and the bit he had been saving up for a summer trip across the United States he was going to have to watch his spending. He would stick around maybe one or two days in order to give his body time to adjust to the change in the time zones and then he would move on south to Konoha. Hopefully once he got into the area that G-Man had indicated on the map he could just ask around for directions rather than wander aimlessly for weeks.

_For now though the only destination I have is with a nice soft pillow!_ Xander thought as he got into the taxi eagerly anticipating contact with a bed in the near future.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

2 Days Later, A Dirt Road, South of Quangzhou, 11:30a.m 

_Well I guess I had better start training._ Xander thought as he left the remote tourist rest stop that seemed to reside quite a ways off the well traveled routes.

He had stopped here to finally change into his ninja uniform as he figured he was far enough from the mainstream Chinese civilized places that he wouldn't be seen anyone more dangerous than a farmer. Also he wanted to get into his training regiment sooner rather than later so he could be in fighting trim when he arrived in Konoha. That meant training in clothes that other ninja trained in and with the added weight that would allow him to gain the strength, stamina and speed he knew he would need. The clothes were the easy part since he had packed the Konoha uniform that he had gotten from Ethan's costume store and as for the weights he figured his backpack would be enough for the moment. It was fairly heavy and as he planned to start out his training with a good run it would add the necessary level of difficulty to actually achieve anything. With this in mind he raised the mask portion of the body suit he wore like a wet suit underneath all the rest of the clothing and used it to cover the lower half of his face. It wasn't entirely necessary as ninjas tended to use it more as a means to do things like filter poisonous fumes through or making blending into the environment easier. In his case though it would make him harder to identify and hopefully the uncertainty of not knowing who he was would be enough to discourage any confrontations along the way.

Settling into a nice brisk run he traveled down the road both taking in the surrounding area's beauty but also keeping an eye out for potential trouble. Ninjas were masters of being able to conceal themselves in any sort of environment and to a lesser degree so did the highway bandits that still existed even in this modern time. He doubted that he'd encounter any serious threats since the area he was in was sort of a gray area between being a part of Quangzhou and being considered a part of the countryside. In other words it was close enough to the city for Quangzhou P.D to be able to get there quick but far enough into the country to be mistaken for the middle of nowhere. He figured he had a day, maybe two if he was lucky, before he would be considered 'safe prey' by highway bandits. Those kind of crooks he could handle since most genin could handle non-ninja criminals easy enough and could escape if it became necessary. It would only be once he approached, and when necessary traveled through, the countries containing hidden villages or ninja of their own. He had taken a look at the map that he had taken from Giles' apartment the day before his flight and judging from the terrain shown on the detailed map he had a pretty good idea which countries he'd be going through.

The first would be the country of Earth since it would be the closest and quickest path to the country of Fire. The memories he retained from Halloween were pretty foggy on the details of this lad other than it was pretty much barren of vegetation and consisted of various cave as well as rock formations. It had a hidden village of Rock called Iwaga so he could be pretty certain of encountering some of their ninja but how they would react to a Konoha ninja strolling through their territory was anyone's guess. The most recent, from what he could discern, bit of info from his fake memories about this village was that it had once been at war with Konoha. However that had been many years ago and while some ninja in that village might still hold a grudge he doubted that they'd make a fuss over something that happened so long ago. Still he'd do what he could to keep away from any populated areas he could detect and if circumstances forced him into a town or city he'd use henge no jutsu to blend in.

The second and last country he'd have to pass through would be Waterfall and fortunately it was such a small country that it wouldn't take him more than two days at the most to get through. It's ninja village Takiga was unfortunately a complete unknown to him aside from a vague reference in his fake memories to a source of miracle water that could put any ninja on even ground with a Kage in terms of power. Of course according to his fake Jonin memories told him that most ninja villages doubted the veracity of this so he'd treat it more as a rumor than actual fact. In any case he hoped that there would be no ill feelings towards Konoha in that country since it would only complicate his journey.

The main problem though was the lack of legal documentation. Despite the tense peace that existed between the various countries each nation was quite adamant that no member of one nation should be walking in another country without written permission. If a ninja was found traveling through say the country of Grass without the right permits or authorization documents they would likely be arrested and detained until the matter was straightened out between the two nations. He of course wouldn't be so fortunate. After all as far as Konoha was concerned he either didn't exist or was thought to still be in Sunnydale with his mother. When you add to the trouble he'd cause if they found out he was an Uchiha and he was doubtful that he'd ever see the light of day again. Hidden villages were always on the look out for opportunities to steal secrets or abilities from other villages. The minute they found out which family he belonged to they'd like do all they could to learn the secrets of Sharingan and likely transplant his eyes into the skull of one of their leaders.

_Trouble thy name is Xander._ He thought as he watched more and more signs of civilization disappear as he journeyed farther away from the city, _Ah well! It could be worse._

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The Next Day, Early Morning, Rest Stop 

"Uh, do the people that run these places even **know** what clean **means**!" Xander muttered to himself as he tried to forget both what he had seen and smelled inside the rest stop.

He had made pretty good time yesterday and was definitely feeling the burn as far as his training went when he at last came to a rest stop at sundown. The weights hadn't gotten any lighter or anything but he was most definitely getting a work out and figured if he kept this pace he could go three days straight before he'd have to up the weight he was carrying. When he had stepped into the rest stop he hadn't known exactly what to expect beyond the basics: a men and women's bathroom, maybe a vending machine or two and hopefully an area where you could put down a sleeping bag or two. After all while he knew that most rest stops along the main highways and perhaps in certain parks were just there to use the washroom in and maybe make a phone call. However given how far off the beaten path he was he had thought that the person who constructed this one would have taken sleeping and eating into account. It had only been when he had stepped inside yesterday night that he had been introduced to the reality of things. The place looked like someone only came by once a year to hose the place down and make sure the place barely managed to pass current safety and health codes. For a moment he had been tempted to keep going in the hopes of finding someplace better but then realized that all of them would be like this until he hit the more populated areas.

_Hopefully though the next one won't smell so bad._ He thought getting ready to resume his training.

It was just as he was about to pick up his backpack that he heard the sounds of someone or something running in his direction. Keeping a hand close to his waist pouch where he kept a few kunai he tried to zero in on the source of the noise. It wasn't coming from either up the dirt road or down it and it was pretty much short grass on the left side of the road all the way up to a cliff overlooking the ocean. So that only left the dense forested area on the right side but that left him stumped because what would drive a person to run like hell through there.

Turning in the appropriate direction he was introduced to the answer to his question quite suddenly as two people exploded out of the forest as though the hounds of hell itself were after them. The first of them looked like he was in his late thirties or maybe early forties and was dressed in a white gi with a bandana on his head. The man was quite broad but the American Uchiha could tell it was all muscle rather than fat meaning the guy had to be pretty strong as well as perhaps an expert martial artist. Following him only a little ways behind was a guy about his own age with a red sleeveless shirt and black pants wearing Bruce Lee-like slippers. Both of them looked like they wholeheartedly believed that if they stopped or even slowed down they'd be committing suicide. Personally he was quite impressed by their speed since it was easily the equivalent of what most academy graduates could manage in Konoha. For a moment or two he considered asking the guys what the problem was but by the time he had reached the decision to open his mouth and ask they had already passed him and were diving off the cliff into the ocean. He stared at where they had been for a few seconds wondering what could have been so bad that two men would leap off a cliff to their potential deaths before looked back the way they had come.

_What the **HELL**?_ He thought as he saw two-dozen warrior women stampeding out of the forest with various implements of death in their hands.

Heading straight for him were a little more than twelve women varying in age between fifteen and thirty-five and all of them wearing the look universally known by men as a sign to run for their lives. Now their actions, including the cliff diving, were completely understandable and if it wasn't for his concern about his mother's ashes getting wet he might have followed them the moment he spotted the angry mob. Slinking slowly back into the rest stop he hoped he'd be able to get out of sight before they took notice of him but like an ahou his movements did the exact opposite. Within three seconds he had the attention of every warrior woman there with one, a teenage girl with long purple hair, being the leader of the group.

"Where Ranma? Tell **NOW**!" she demanded in a voice that seemed way too soft and high pitched to be coming from such an obviously skilled warrior.

"Um, who? I don't know any Ranma." He replied in Japanese since he figured these ladies would have an easier time understanding that then English.

While he had not entirely lied to the young woman he also didn't exactly tell the entire truth either. He was pretty sure 'Ranma' had been that teenage guy in the sleeveless red shirt that he had just seen jump off the cliff just a little while ago. The broad muscled man that had jumped off the cliff didn't seem like someone that would be named 'Ranma'. Unfortunately this left him in a rather precarious position in terms of what to do right now. On the one hand he knew that if he didn't tell this girl what she wanted to know she'd likely vent some of her pent up rage on him. On the other hand he wouldn't wish on any guy the kind of violence that Ranma seemed to have coming his way. In the end he decided to try and stall for as long as he could before finally telling this young woman where she could find Ranma. While he wasn't about to lie to her he could at least give a fellow male a head start on his executioners.

Unfortunately Fate it seemed had more 'interesting' plans for him because at that precise moment one of the warrior women looked over the edge of the cliff and spotted something.

"Xian Pu! They swimming away!" yelled the warrior woman with the hot pink hair.

The leader with the long purple hair ran over to the edge of the cliff and looked for herself in order to confirm what one of her comrades had just told her. He knew Fate or the Fates or who ever determined the course his life would take had to be grinning like the cat that ate the canary right now. He knew that one of two things could happen now: a) he could hit a patch of good luck and the women could leave him alone in order to catch up to their prey or b) only the leader would leave but not before giving orders to kill him. It didn't take a genius to figure out which possibility he was aiming for right then. Hell! A village idiot could probably come up with the right answer.

"Lu Xion! You, Olay, Pu Fium and Deo stay an kill liar!" Xian Pu ordered with fury embodying her every movement and action, "Rest of you follow me!"

As all but four of the warrior women followed Xian Pu off the cliff in hot pursuit of their initial prey he quickly found himself with more pressing matters than wondering whether or not Ranma would succeed in escaping that violent woman. The one called Lu Xion wielded a pair of nunchucks, Olay a pair of sais, Pu Fium a naginta and Deo a really sharp looking katana. In short they had pain-inducing objects in hand with their sights set squarely on him. Stepping as carefully as he could away from the rest stop, not wanting his belongings or his mother's ashes getting caught in the middle of the impending fight, he decided he'd give talking things out a try.

"Look, honestly ladies, I just woke up a few minutes ago." He said bringing his hands up in front of him to show he wasn't armed, "I truly didn't know that 'Ranma' was that guy that jumped off the cliff a few minutes ago. Can't we talk things over?"

His reply came in the form a thrust from Pu Fium's naginta that he narrowly managed to avoid by dodging to the left. From that point on he knew that he wouldn't be able to talk his way out which meant either running away as fast as he could or actually managing to beat them. Judging from how hotly they pursued that guy Ranma he was willing to bet they'd follow him all the way to the front gates of Konoha. Not exactly the best way for him to make a good impression on the Uchiha clan or Hokage-sama.

So 'knock out the warrior women' looks like the only way to get out of this jam. He thought as he brought up his right forearm to block a nunchuck strike by Lu Xion, _I'll try to go easy on them. No sense ruining their stunning good looks over a simple misunderstanding._

First he had to clean some space around him so he could set up some sort of strategy to deal with four obviously skilled warrior women. Fortunately he knew just the one. Waiting until Deo came into range with her katana he allowed her to make the first move before launching his own counterattack.

"KONOHA DAISENPU!" he declared as he leapt past her guard and delivered a powerful kick aimed at the woman's head.

As expected, since it was the reaction most warriors had to this move, Deo ducked the first kick but was nailed with the second one that she likely didn't see coming. While Xander was glad that he had scored a hit he knew better than to let it go to his head. After all the second kick of that particular taijutsu technique was roughly half the strength of the first so at best Deo might be dazed for a few moments. She'd be back soon enough but for the moment he had reduced his attackers from four to three so he'd better take advantage of it. Turning to Lu Xion who had been somewhat stunned at Deo being knocked back he dropped to into a crouch to perform his next move.

"KONOHA REPPU!" he said as he swept the brunette's legs out from under her and set the warrior woman up for his next move.

As soon as her face was in the right position he used the remaining momentum from his leg sweep and channeled it into an elbow to the side of the nunchuck wielding woman's head. It didn't send her far but it did put her in the same sort of dazed state as Deo.

Unfortunately that was when the Fates decided that they had given him enough of a head start with his opponents and decided to leave him to fend for himself because no sooner did he turn around then the two sais wielded by Olay came down at him aimed at his chest. Reacting on instinct both his hands shot up and grabbed the wrists of Olay and stopped the advance of the pointy weapons an inch before they would have piereced the flak jacket. While nearly being stabbed with two three pronged daggers was surprise enough what really had him reeling was the **STRENGTH** the woman had. He knew he was no Arnold in the muscle department but thanks to his training he thought he was as strong as any jock or graduate of one of those martial arts chain dojos. When he had taken a look at them in the beginning he figured that these young women were maybe as strong as your average black belt at most and at the very least as strong as someone who exercised regularly. In reality though he found that Olay was rapidly approaching a level of power he thought only Slayers could manage. If all four of these women had roughly the same level of strength then he was in even bigger trouble than he had originally thought.

_It was one thing to hold back against four highly trained but normal young women but it's another to hold back against four Slayer strong women!_ Xander thought with feelings on the verge of panic.

Channeling chakra to both his arms and legs he delivered a hard knee to Olay's stomach and using upper body strength only threw the young woman over his head. Kicking himself to his feet like a certain Heartbreak Kid he decided that like it or not it was time to turn up the heat with these lovely ladies. Bringing out a handful of shurikens he immediately began raining them down on the only woman still standing, Pu Fium, aiming for areas that would hinder her ability to run fast. Unfortunately the lady was obviously prepared for this and twirled her naginta around rapidly deflecting the shurikens with ease. He was about to try something else when his inner danger sense told him to jump and jump quickly. Given how many times that sense had saved his butt in the past he obeyed it leaping as high into the air as he could. Looking down he could see that he'd have to give his danger sense a hefty pat on the back later because right where he had once been was a sharp katana with an angry Deo wielding it.

He was soon jarred out of his moment of back patting by a painful blow to his back that sent him tumbling down to the ground. It was not a pleasant experience to say the least when one is forcefully introduced to terra firma but in his case the impact helped to clear his head enough twist into a position where he could regain his footing. Looking back up in the direction he had come from he saw that Lo Xion had recovered from his earlier attack on her head. Chances were that she had planned that two pronged assault with Deo, one would force him into the air while the other attacked from behind, which meant that these ladies were starting to take him seriously enough to use strategy. Given that it was four on one he wasn't too crazy about his survival odds which meant he had to start trimming at their numbers or increase his own.

_I had really hoped I wouldn't have to use this move._ He thought as he leapt back a bit to get some room, _Mostly because if it fails I'll be in even worse trouble than I'm in right now._

_Rat, Tiger, Hare, Dragon, Serpent, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Bird, Dog, Boar!_ He thought as he went through all the necessary hand seals as quickly as he could.

"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" he yelled and immediately four explosions of mist appeared around him dispersing to reveal four shadow clones of himself, "Alright guys time to give these ladies a spanking!"

Not bothering to take the time to review his previous statement Xander and his four shadow clones charged the warrior women kunai in hand. While he would have preferred to deal with the women from a distance if Pu Fium was any indication they'd be able to block his throwing weapons easy. That meant close quarters combat which unfortunately for him was one of the things he wasn't all that good at. He could probably match your average genin blow for blow but against a truly gifted one or a chuunin the best he'd be able to manage would be a slow defeat. Hopefully the women would be surprised enough by the sudden change in odds that he'd be able to put at least one of them down for good.

Choosing to double team Lo Xion in order to break up the team of her and Deo he began to fall into a routine of setting up his enemy for his shadow clone to hit then waiting for the clone to return the favor. It didn't work right away but once he and his clone randomized who would do the setting up and who would do the attacking they managed to land quite a few blows as well as knock the nunchuks from her hands. With momentum built he decided it was time to deliver the coup de grace and so with as much speed as he could muster he grabbed her by the arm and threw her into the wall of the rest stop. Lo Xion didn't hit with enough force to go through or even leave cracks but he could tell from the way she had landed she wouldn't be getting up anytime soon. Turning to see how the remaining three of his clones were doing he was discouraged to find that with the exception of the one fighting Olay they had all been destroyed. Not the most promising outcome of his plan and given the more than murderous look Deo was sending his way he had a feeling she and Lo Xion were pretty close friends or something.

_Great! My first real victory against these ladies and I wind up jumping head first into even more trouble!_ He thought as he and his shadow clone gave each other a look of mutual anxiety.

Between a rock and a very painful place he watched both Pu Fium and Deo head his way with his only good luck being that Olay seemed to be having trouble handling her clone partner. Gripping their kunai tighter both he and his clone were determined to give it their best but unlike his clone he decided to use the one ace up his sleeve that he had kept in reserve until now. It wasn't that he didn't know how useful it would be but given how recently he had acquired it he wasn't entirely certain he could utilize it competently in battle conditions.

_No time like the present to see how good it works!_ He thought as he channeled chakra to his eyes, _Sharingan!_

With the chakra diverted and the word spoken in his mind he could almost feel his eyes shift from brown irises to blood red with two tomoes. If the sensations weren't enough to convince him that he had successfully activated the bloodline limit technique the weird before images of Pu Fium and Deo did it for sure. Unlike the concept of after images where a person sees a series of fading images of a warrior heading towards them as the warrior moves at top speed before images him a tangible idea of the two warrior women would do next. Placing a sizeable amount of his attention on listening to what his sharingan was telling him he kept some in reserve just in case his inexperience with it got him into trouble.

This done he turned his head to face the closer of the two warrior women and the one that had chosen him as an opponent, Pu Fium. A bit of a surprise for him considering he had assumed that she'd head straight for him but he supposed that the katana wielding woman wanted to eliminate his back up first before coming to tear him limb from limb. With that in mind he devoted all his energy into getting rid of Ms. Naginta as quickly as he could since he'd probably need all his focus to be on Deo when she attacked. Pu Fium swung her naginta in a horizontal swing from the right at an impressive speed but thanks to his new set of eyes he had seen it coming a mile away. With advance knowledge of her move he decided to do something daring given the Slayer level strength the warrior women had and the grip he figured would be needed for Pu Fium's attack. As soon as it was with in range he leapt up onto the end of the naginta and using a light version of the tree climbing exercise ran down the pole towards the warrior woman. Just as a look of shock manifested on her face he delivered a powerful front kick hitting her right on the jaw causing her to let go of her weapon and fly into the air. Landing on the ground he picked up the naginta and after breaking off the blade at the end he brought it up into a staff ready position like Buffy had during her training sessions with Giles.

Looking he saw Pu Fium land in a heap and was glad that the kick he delivered had succeeded in knocking her out because Deo had apparently finished off his clone and was coming at him like an angry dragon. Using his sharingan he primarily dodged any attacks sent his way since he knew his wooden staff would only be able to take a few hits before it was cut into two or more pieces. He'd have to wait, wait until Deo's vulnerable spot was exposed like they taught at the academy, and then end the fight with one strike if he could. With each missing swing of her katana though he could tell that Deo's rage was only skyrocketing and while that did increase the chances of her screwing up it also ensured that if a blow of hers connected it would do serious damage. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, some higher being decided they wanted him to stick around awhile longer so when Deo over did it with an overhead slash he got behind her and slammed one end of the staff into the back of her head.

_She must have one hard head!_ He thought as he saw the nasty crack in the wood where the staff and Deo's skull had connected, _Hopefully that means she won't have a concussion or anything._

With that he turned to his final target to find that she had finally managed to destroy her shadow clone opponent but while some might think it was smooth sailing from here on out he knew it was anything but. Using the shadow clones, sharingan and the modified version of the tree climbing exercise as well as the usual taijutsu moves had left him more than a little winded. It wasn't so bad that he'd look weak in front of Olay but if things went on much longer he'd be in real trouble.

_Time to pull out the hat trick!_ He thought as he brought his hands together to form the rat hand seal and said, "Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu."

Coming to a sluggish stop Olay stood a few feet from him in a daze, an unseeing look in her eyes, but that only lasted for a moment before a look of utter fear came over that actually caused her to start shaking. Deciding that he might have made a mistake with his choice of genjutsu he rushed forward and delivered the knockout punch sending her into blissful unconsciousness. He knew what it was she probably saw: a curtain of leaves rising up all around blocking her vision before disappearing to reveal an unchanged environment. The target thinks that nothing has happened and that was when the damage was dealt when something the enemy fears makes an appearance looking completely realistic and believable. Most ninja would be able to figure out that something was wrong and thus the effect of the illusion would be limited. He had assumed that Olay would have been experienced enough to not freak out under the technique's influence but apparently he was wrong.

_I hope I didn't scare her too much._ He thought as he briskly walked over to the rest stop to get his things, _Last thing I want is to find out my move caused her seek professional mental help._

With his backpack securely strapped on and all his salvageable weapons back in their pockets he decided to put as much distance between him and these warrior women as possible. There was no way he was going to press his luck by sticking around until they woke up.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&


	4. Rocks and Feathers

_Just Inside the Boarder of the Land of Earth, Two Days Later_

_Well, two days on the run, evading and backtracking almost the entire time, and no sign of those warrior women on my trail._ Xander thought as he took a look back the way he had come, _Guess I really did lose them. Thank GOD!_

With an audible sigh of both relief and fatigue he sank down and sat on the tree branch he'd been standing on. It had been an almost non-stop trip since leaving the rest station where'd encountered the four women and he'd only taken the minimum amount of rest each night necessary to resume his evasion tactics. Not that he really expected them to follow him, given the state that he had left them in, but he decided it would be best not to take any chances. In all likelihood they had been unconscious for hours and when they had finally come to the most they had probably done was a quick search of the immediate area. The odds of them being pissed enough and determined enough to hunt him down to the proverbial ends of the Earth and kill him were pretty remote from his point of view. It was far more likely that they'd head back home and report their failure while promising to kill him if they ever saw him again soon after. That would essentially mean that, for the foreseeable future, China and the area to the south would be off limits for him unless an extreme emergency came up. That wouldn't be a problem as far as he was concerned once he brought his mother home and tended to whatever leftover business she'd left undone he'd be going back to Sunnydale. With his mother dead, Hokage-sama would need a replacement to keep an eye on the Hellmouth and, given that he'd lived there all his life, he'd be the perfect choice for the mission. True, he'd probably get saddled with a supervisor for a while until he'd proven that he could handle the job on his own but he was confident it wouldn't take too long to do that.

_In any case now that running for my life is over and done with it's time to get back to training and getting to Konoha._ He thought to himself as he dropped to the ground and took a moment to make sure his weights were still securely tied to his limbs and torso.

It was another of the few benefits of fleeing from the rest stop that he'd managed to get some pretty intense training in the past few days. He'd only allowed himself to stay in one place long enough to catch the minimum amount of sleep he could get away with before resuming his country-sized version of keep away. That meant in the past forty-eight hours he'd gotten about twelve hours, tops, in the sleep department with the remaining thirty-six spent with four angry women he'd presumed were pursuing him. True, he was beginning to feel the strain of all that work, but he knew he couldn't let it hold him back especially now that he was in Earth Country. From what his ninja memories told him, the Land of Earth might not be at war with Fire Country at the moment, but there were certainly no friendly feelings between the two nations. Needless to say that meant that he would have to make sure to keep a low profile and avoid using any jutsus in populated areas. The last thing he needed was to get the whole **frickin**' country after him either because he was traveling through their land without the right documentation or because he was just connected to Konoha. Until he crossed the boarder into the Grass Country, he had to stay on his toes and act smarter than he usually did in the hopes of avoiding undue attention.

Satisfied that all of the weights were securely fastened to his person, he took off in a generally southeasterly direction at a brisk jog, planning on building up his stamina first. This would aide him in increasing the time he was able to maintain a technique and hopefully be a big help in becoming a better ninja. Taking a moment to get a feel for how the weights felt, he figured he'd probably be able to get at least two or three more days of good use out of them before he'd have to find a way of increasing the load. Not for the first time, he wished he knew how to increase the weight of objects by inscribing various chakra infused words onto them. He knew the technique existed from his Halloween-inherited memories, but the memories pertaining to the practice were general and vague, making it impossible for him to even begin figuring out how to do it. The best he could figure was that he'd try and sneak into a town when he came across one and try and get something roughly the same size as his current weights but denser and heavier. Maybe something made out of lead or something like that. If that turned out to be a problem, he'd have to drop the weight training and work more on his jutsus in terms of making them last longer, or just plain making them work like they were supposed to.

As far as his ETA for arriving in Konoha, he figured if he kept up a decent pace and didn't run into too many problems, he should be able to get there inside of a week. About ten seconds after that thought went through his head he came to a screeching halt and he smacked himself for thinking of something so positively jinx worthy. Looking around in all directions, he checked to see if Mr. Murphy was impatiently waiting to drop some kind of bad luck on him or if he had some time before his journey went south on him.

_Just because I'm not on a Hellmouth any longer is no reason to think that bad luck won't get dumped on me if I don't watch what I say or think._ He thought to himself as he shrugged with some relief when he could spot no sign of misfortune heading his way.

Little did he know that the cunning ascended being known as Mr. Murphy was just biding his time in order to think of something truly awful to do to the American Uchiha.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_The Next Day, Mid-Morning, Outskirts of a Town_

_Well looks like I got no choice now._ Xander thought to himself as his stomach growled like a grizzly in protest to the lack of good food, _I really need to learn how to pace myself when I eat!_

It had been in the early evening yesterday when he'd finally stopped training and running for a moment to have some dinner. He'd really been looking forward to it since, during the two days he'd been on the run from the warrior women, he hadn't been able to eat more than a bite full every few hours. So, naturally, he set out what would constitute a normal meal for him and chowed down. After that he went at training for another four hours or so before hitting the sack, figuring that he should probably try and get an early start tomorrow morning. However when he'd woken up at dawn, an easy thing when the damn sun is shining in your face the second it peeks up over the horizon, he found much to his dismay that he'd gone overboard with dinner the previous night. All he had left of the provisions he'd packed with his clothes was two packages of Twinkies and some beef jerky. Needless to say he wasn't willing to terminate his Twinkie supply so early in the journey and beef jerky by itself wasn't going to be very filling. Therefore he'd decided to use some of the ninja wilderness survival training he could still recall from his Halloween as a nameless Jounin. The fact that this was four hours later and he was still foodless and hungrier than ever made it pretty clear that his fishing, foraging and hunting skills stank big time.

_Now, what would be the best way to get into the town, buy the food I'll need for the rest of the trip to Konoha and then get out without getting the hairy eyeball from everyone?_ He thought to himself as he gazed upon the small Earth town before him.

The first obvious method would be to use henge no jutsu to alter his appearance so that he looked just like an average citizen of Earth country. However that had a rather big problem in it, considering this was his first time to this country and thus didn't know what an average person looked like around these parts. He could make a guess about that but if he was wrong he'd be spotted and perhaps surrounded inside of a minute. Still he firmly believed that the henge no jutsu was the way to go here and that it was only the form he had to choose properly. It didn't have to be taken seriously, since all he was doing was going in there to buy some food and maybe see if there was anything in the way of weights he could buy. At most, he figured it might take him an hour or less to get everything and then he'd be on his way to Konoha again. Perhaps he should try something simpler? Instead of going for a complete transformation, maybe he should just change his clothes and try to keep them as bland and generic as possible. After all, while the various regions of the hidden villages had different climates and terrain there were some consistencies in terms of clothing. If he just planned on those consistencies and didn't use anything that would stand out all that much, there was at least a fifty-fifty chance he'd be able to pull this simple 'mission' off.

"Alright! Mission: Provision Acquisition is a go!" He said to himself as he formed the ram seal, "HENGE NO JUTSU!"

With a puff of mist the shinobi in training Uchiha Xander was gone and in his place was a common traveler, complete with brown pants, black shirt and one of those straw hats he'd seen so often in those Asian films. With a little luck this outfit was generic enough that the people in the town wouldn't pay him too much attention and he could get his business concluded quickly. After taking a brief moment to make an estimate as to how long he had before he no longer had enough chakra to maintain the technique, a little over two hours by his reckoning, he started to briskly walk towards the town.

It took him about twenty minutes at the pace he'd set for himself, but when he arrived he saw pretty much what he expected, which was buildings suited to the lay of the land and people who were familiar with it as well. Taking a moment to look at the people, he was relieved to find out that aside from a few minor details, he was pretty much wearing the same sort of clothes as most of the young men in the town. So long as he didn't say or do anything odd while he was in town, he should be able to conclude his business and be gone long before anyone's curiosity got the better of them.

Strolling through town, he used his rudimentary knowledge of the language guide him to the main marketplace area. Being smart this time, he decided to choose foods that were both tasty and had a long shelf life so that he wouldn't have to scarf it all down before it went bad, not that he expected it to take him too long to get to Konoha, given that he marked down all the likely spots in the forested area of the region that best matched certain landmarks his Halloween Jounin personae remembered. While he would still have to search a bit, he was confident he'd be able to find the place he was looking for within three days once he entered the country of fire.

He was about halfway through buying his provisions for the next leg of his journey when a primal shriek of pain echoed through the air, grabbing his attention immediately. Passing the money to the vendor, he quickly tracked the source of the sound and was immediately upset with what he saw. Standing on a platform that was about three feet off the ground were what appeared to be four brutish looking performers that were trying to put on a show for the meager crowd gathered around the platform. He said meager because given the state the star of the show was in, he knew the act was pretty much dead and the star would be if those four apes weren't stopped soon. There, wobbling on its feet, was an eagle hawk trying the best it could to go where the brutes were cursing at it to go but looking like it would keel over at any moment. One wing was obviously broken and he could see signs amongst its feathers of lacerations and maybe even burns that had only recently healed. Obviously these guys didn't know the first thing about taking care of a bird, much less training one, but it also looked like they wouldn't be trying to learn how either. In any case it looked like the more time went on the more pissed the four idiots got at the bird and the less it looked like the noble animal would escape punishment.

_**Bakas**! It's their own fault the bird can't perform! _He thought angrily with his inner self wanting nothing more than to dive in there and bust some heads_, If they'd only taken the time to learn even the basics of how to train an animal they'd definitely get better results than this!_

"Stupid animal! Stop being so lazy and dance," yelled one of the men after taking a discouraging look at the faces of the people in the crowd.

"**Frickin**' bird! We ain't going to make any money if this piece of crap doesn't start doing something!" Goon number two said, looking like he was going to hit the bird if things kept going bad for much longer.

"I know how we'll get some results," said the leader and most likely the 'intelligent' one of the group.

_I do **not** like the sound of that one bit! _He thought to himself as he watched the leader roughly put a small hood over the eagle hawk's head.

His concerns were proven correct since, once the hood was secure enough that the leader of the goons was satisfied, the horrible man reached into his pocket and pulled out some metal caltrops each one no bigger than a marble. To Xander's shock and horror, the man spread the sharp pieces of metal out on the platform around the eagle hawk and using the rope tied around the bird's leg guided it onto the metal bits. With a shriek of pain much like the one that had lured him there, the poor bird leapt backwards as best it could and reflexively tried to spread its wings, only to be reminded that one was broken. It was a show of brutality and pain that was unlike anything Xander had seen back home and it pissed him off greatly. Only a warning from his voice of reason that he couldn't draw attention to himself kept him from letting his growing fury guide him. However, that control was put in danger when two of the goons actually started laughing at the suffering the animal was going through. Covertly looking around at the gathered crowd, he kept praying that someone would step in and put an end to this show of torture, but while it was clear only the sick ones were enjoying the display, no one looked like they were going to intervene. Most of them probably figured that it wasn't their problem and that it wouldn't be worth the trouble of confronting four thugs if the bird was just going to die anyway.

_It's… it's just like it was with me! _He thought to himself as he began to see himself in the eagle hawk that was currently bleeding all over the platform bit by bit, _People knew**, they knew**, that Tony was beating the crap out of me and mom **but they did nothing**! At least mom had an excuse, she was on a mission, but the others didn't have any reason to keep them from doing the right thing! **Screw this**!_

Quickly scooping up four rocks from the ground, he charged the platform and, once he was within range, he leapt up and onto it while throwing one rock at each goon's head. While not precisely hitting the parts of the head he'd been aiming for, it did have the affect of disorienting the goons and that allowed him to make his move. A part of him, commonly known as common sense or sanity, was yelling at him that he was putting his mission of getting to Konoha in danger by pulling such a ridiculous stunt. However his heart, which was firmly in control at the moment, wouldn't listen and had only the welfare of the bird with which he felt a kinship with in mind. Falling into a baseball slide, he coasted along on top of the platform on his butt and used his feet to clear his path of caltrops along the way. Scooping up the bird as he went by, it wasn't long before he slid off the platform and onto solid ground again. Unfortunately it was also at this time that the four goons recovered from the rocks to the head and they were none too happy that some stranger was stealing their cash source.

"Where do ya think you're going with our bird!?" The dumbest of the goons asked in anger, even though it should have been painfully obvious what the answer to the question was to the fool.

"Any place would be better for this bird than **with you**!" Xander replied his heart having convinced his mouth to join its side, "Why don't you **ahou** actually try doing some honest work for a change?! Or are you too **stupid** even for physical labor?"

"Why you!" Growled the leader with a distinctly murderous look on his face and, as one, all four goons charged his position.

It was at this moment that his heart realized that it was in a bit of a bind but when it turned to its common sense/sanity for some help, the best the rational part of his mind could come up with was RUN.

So that's what he did.

With almost even step he took he could hear some of the more fragile or mushable things he'd bought bounce around inside his backpack and knew that he was going to have a serious mess to clean up when this was over and that was despite the fact that he'd stayed away from some of the foods rich in juices or stain-inducing ingredients. This was almost enough to cause his heart to convince his mouth to shout back a few choice insults at the pursuing goons, but fortunately reason and common sense were able to restrain it. He was in enough trouble as it was without stoking the fires of trouble coming up from behind him. At the moment, he hoped that the morons chasing him were as out of shape as he'd hoped since his time on the Hellmouth and his training thus far would make sure they got tired out before he did. It was then that lady luck must have decided she'd been playing favorites for too long because that was when two goons he'd never seen before stepped into his path with sharp looking knives in their hands. Given the fact that they were dressed similar to the fools behind him and also looked suitably dimwitted, he figured they were part of the same gang.

_Just my luck! I try and do a good deed and wind up pissing off the local criminal syndicate!_ He thought to himself as he took a risk and leapt up onto the roof of the building to the right of him using a bit of chakra to enhance the strength of his legs.

Hopping from rooftop to rooftop, he hoped to put some major distance between him and his pursuers while at the same time trying not to jostle the bird too much. The eagle hawk had been pretty still since being picked up by him but it was still alive since he could see its beak opening and closing as well as a random jerk of a wing. Still, he knew this animal needed medical help as soon as possible and that meant he had to lose the goons chasing him immediately. Dropping down into an alleyway, momentarily out of the sight of everyone, he chose to take a chance.

_Tiger, Boar, Ox, Dog. _He thought to himself as he formed the seals without dropping the bird, BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!

With a pop and a momentary puff of mist a perfect clone of him appeared with eagle hawk in its arms and, without a word, ran out of the alleyway and down the street away from the goons which had almost caught up. Ducking behind what looked liked the Earth country equivalent of a dumpster, he waited until they passed and all sound of them had faded before standing up. He knew that the clone wouldn't last for very long and would vanish once it got outside of a certain radius from him, but by it would have served its purpose by then. With no leads on where he was both he and the bird would be safe for the time being.

_Still I need to find an animal doctor in this town and the sooner the better! _He thought as he walked up to the mouth of the alleyway and took a peek to see if the coast was truly clear.

He was about ten seconds into jogging back towards the center of town when a door to a building on his right opened up and a woman in her mid to late twenties gestured to him to get inside. For a moment he hesitated, wondering if it was a trick or if he was misinterpreting what she was trying to tell him, but a moment later he dashed over to the door and slipped past her. He heard the door close as he turned around and now with the problem of his immediate safety out of the way he now had to see if he could keep it that way. That and find a way to get the eagle hawk the help it needed.

"Thank you for your help miss, but I have to ask: why are you helping me?" He asked, wanting to get the mystery of this woman's aide out of the way.

"I'm helping you because you are helping the bird. I am helping you because you are the first to stand up to Hachiro and his gang of thugs in ten years." Replied the woman as she closed the blinds on the only window in the room, "Most of all though I am helping you because it is what my dead husband would have wanted."

Sensing that the pain of losing her husband was still fresh in her heart, he did not give into his curiosity and ask for details. Instead he merely bowed in thanks and put the injured bird down on the table in order to get a grasp of the injuries and how much time he had to find a vet or some kind of animal doctor. What he saw wasn't pretty at all and if this had been a person he was looking at, he'd be rushing them to the nearest emergency room with all the speed he could manage.

"This bird needs to see a doctor of some kind. Are there any animal doctors in the town? Any healers at all that might be able to help it?" He asked the woman who had taken up an observational position near him.

She shook her head before replying "No, I'm afraid not. This is not a wealthy town and what resources we do have go to just keeping ourselves alive. The land is not forgiving and those who do not learn how to make each and everything they have last do not survive very long."

"Damn," he muttered with anger as he closed his eyes and tried to remember any of the healing jutsus that might be of some help during a situation like this.

The first and, unfortunately, only one that he could think of was the Shôsen Jutsu that was used by medical ninja's to either perform surgery or speed up the healing process in an injured person. He knew the basic theory about it and knew the hand seals necessary to perform it, but it was an A Class technique and he was most certainly not far enough along in his training to attempt to perform a technique like that. He could wind up doing just as much damage as good and that would pretty much go against his goal of helping the injured avian animal. With a growl of frustration he decided that the best he could do was use basic first aid techniques and hope that the bird would have enough determination to see itself through.

"If you would please bring me a bowl of water, some strips of cloth, some chopsticks as well as a needle and thread." He asked as politely as he could before dragging a chair over to the side of the table closest to the eagle hawk.

Bowing in acquiescence, the woman left to gather the things he requested leaving him with a chance to check his stores of chakra and figure out just how much time he had before the henge no jutsu would fail. He had no illusions as to what the woman would do once he changed from an unknown stranger to a young man dressed like a Konoha Jounin and would rather not have to face the possibility of harming her unless he had no choice. Centering himself and taking deep breaths, he delved within himself until he could feel the chakra pathways circulating energy throughout his body. Examining the pathways thoroughly, he believed that he might have an hour tops before the transformation technique would have to be terminated if he wanted to make a quick escape later. Apparently the roof hopping he'd done and creating that clone had taken up more chakra than he had thought and had cut his time in this form down significantly. Opening his eyes, he hoped that he'd at least be able to finish patching the bird up the best he could before leaving. The woman seemed to be kind enough that if he left the bird in her care she'd take care of it or at least make sure that Hachiro and his intellectually-challenged friends didn't get to it. Slipping off his backpack and putting it up against a table leg next to him, he did some quick stretches both to loosen up and to relax since he'd have to be very careful in treating his feathered friend's injuries.

A minute later the woman returned with what he asked for and while the water wasn't the cleanest, nor were the strips of cloth stain-free, he figured it was the best he could hope for given his present circumstances. So with the utmost care he took one of the strips of cloth and began the laborious task of cleaning out the injured bird's wounds one at a time. With what was both a good thing as well as a bad thing, the bird was apparently too weak from loss of blood to struggle all the much. Aside from some spasms when he touched some of the more sensitive areas and a squawk, he was mostly still aside from the rise and fall of its feathered chest. Each time it fell though a part of him was afraid that that would be it and that all his efforts to save the animal he'd felt a kinship with would be for naught. Yet each time that fear manifested it was dispelled by the chest rising once again as the bird took in another breath of air.

Once the wounds were clean he did his best to put a splint on the bird's broken wing occasionally asking the woman, whose name was Kaede he found out, to hold a part in place while he finished securing it in place. The sewing closed of the open wounds was probably the hardest part since he was certainly no seamstress or tailor, but nevertheless he gave it his best shot. Forty minutes later he finished his last stitch and near as he could tell the bird was still alive if a bit too weak for his liking.

"Will it live?" Kaede asked tentatively, as if she was unsure whether or not she wanted the answer to that question.

"Damned if I know," he replied honestly as he made to get up from the chair he'd been sitting in. "I've done all I can do, so the rest is up to the bird as far as living goes."

Just as he fully stood up a wave of fatigue rolled over him and he had to take a moment to brace himself against the table. He didn't even need to think to realize what the cause was and why it was not a good thing. The combination of the stress of treating the bird and his body's own natural consumption of chakra had shortened the estimated time of duration for the henge no jutsu even further. Already it was becoming difficult to keep the jutsu from collapsing and reverting to his natural form in front of the woman he'd met a little under an hour ago. Almost immediately the idea of tearing out of the house and out of the town came to mind but he knew that he wouldn't get more than a block away from the building he was in before the technique failed. In the end he knew that he had no choice but to pray that Kaede would give him a chance to explain before she ran to the local authorities.

"K-Kaede? I'm afraid I haven't been completely honest with you and it looks like I'm going to have to come clean now whether I like it or not." He said as he sat back down in the chair, "I just hope that you'll give me a chance to explain before you do anything."

Before the puzzled woman could do more than open her mouth the last of his resolve that was keeping the technique active failed and in a puff of mist he changed back to his normal form in all its Konoha ninja glory. Sitting there physically feeling a little better since he was no longer under the strain of keeping the henge no jutsu going, he waited for Kaede's reaction. Personally he figured it would by either a) screaming at the top of her lungs, b) running out the door screaming at the top of her lungs or c) fainting dead away inside of five seconds. He was really hoping it would be the last one, since it would at least give him an hour or two to recuperate, hopefully, after which he could transform again and try to convince the woman that she had imagined it all. After all, if he played it right he could say that she fell and hit her head and hadn't really helped out a ninja from an enemy nation. However instead of fear or hatred, what appeared on Kaede's face was understanding and, strangely enough, some understanding that quite frankly had him scratching his head mentally.

"So, you're a Konoha ninja?" She asked in what he assumed was a rhetorical manner, "Well don't worry because I'm not going to turn you in or anything. We'll just have to be careful not to let anyone see you until you can use the transformation technique again."

"Huh?" Was all he could say in response since 'friendly' wasn't exactly what he'd been expecting.

With a smile of amusement on her face Kaede went over to a section of the wall and, after a series of hand seals, which gave him an inkling of what was going on, reached into the wall and removed something. Walking back to him, she held out her left hand and in it was what looked to be a genuine Konoha forehead protector, albeit a little banged up. Looking back up at her he tried to figure out if this was the honest truth or some kind of trick but he could see no deception in her face. If she was telling him the truth, then that led to whole bunch of other questions not the least of which was what she was doing here in Earth country instead of Konoha. A sad but accepting look came over her face as she apparently had a good idea of where his train of thought had taken him.

"I was once a ninja from Konoha, just like you, and to answer your question the reason I have not gone home is because I am dead to them and wish to remain that way." She stated sitting down on a nearby chair, "It is better for everyone that way. Both my friends and family would be greatly shamed if the truth were to be known, so in exchange for granting you refuge here I must ask that you not reveal anything once you arrive in Konoha."

A glimmer of understanding twinkled across the landscape of his mind since he knew that honor and saving face were big things to most Asian families. A grave enough dishonor or shameful act could actually cause them to commit _seppuku_ or disown a family member completely. To Kaede, her dishonor must have been only matched by her love for her family and friends for her to remain in enemy territory, where she could be discovered at any moment. For a moment she looked as though she would leave her explanation at that but then an unidentifiable look came over her face when she looked at him. It was almost like she recognized him, or at least saw some of someone else in his features and this seemed to be enough to get her to lay everything out to him.

"It all happened about twelve years ago while the conflict between Fire country and Earth country was entering a particularly nasty phase." Kaede explained, seemingly focused more on her inner memories than the world around her, "My sensei, a teammate and I were dispatched on a mission to scout out a remote region of Earth country in response to some rumors of a new weapon being developed. It wasn't an overtly dangerous mission and, truthfully, even Hokage-sama didn't put much stock in the rumors. It wasn't until we had encounter the first bits of resistance that we realized that there was more to this than we realized.

"The number of Chuunins we were running into were too numerous to be scouts or patrol groups. With as much care as we could manage, we continued on to our destination but were discovered just as we reached the edge of a large crater that formed the perimeter of the development site." She said as she absentmindedly pushed some of her light brown hair out of her face, "Our sensei gave the order to make a run for it, not willing to risk us further in investigating something that was clearly no rumor, but my teammate was captured by one of their Jonin. I had already lost one teammate to the battles with Earth country and refused to lose another, so despite being ordered not to by my sensei I attempted a rescue on my own.

"Heh, I was so confident back then, I thought I had all the angles covered." She said with a bitter chuckle as the bad memories began to affect her, "In the end I almost doomed all of Konoha with my foolishness! The 'new weapon' they were developing was a plague designed specifically to remain harmless within the carrier until the poor soul entered a certain environment. The idea was to infect someone with the disease, someone from Konoha, and then let them 'escape' only to doom everyone they cared about once they returned home.

"I was in the middle of freeing my teammate from the ropes binding him when I was hit with a dart of an observing Jonin. I had thought that he had just messed up when I didn't feel anything more severe than a slight bought of vertigo." She said continuing her retelling of the events twelve years ago, "It wasn't until the Jonin was easily tricked into a trap I had laid out on my way in that I began to suspect something was amiss. By the time we were approaching the edge of the compound I finally understood what was going on and what would happen if I went home. Not willing to risk bringing death to those I cared about I used a combination of medical jutsu and genjutsu to make my teammate believe we were under attack by Earth ninja. When the time was right I dropped into a nearby chasm and left my friend to believe I had died.

"I still hear about him from time to time. He's made quite a name for himself and has a team of his own now." She said ending her retelling of her story of shame, "I bet he still reads those dirty novels and acts all indifferent no matter what people do to him."

Understanding what she must have gone through and why she had to stay away from Konoha, he couldn't help but feel a little sad at what she had been forced to do. While he couldn't truly understand the dishonor part since she couldn't have been more than a genin at the time of the mission, he could find no fault in her line of reasoning as far as faking her death was concerned. It had to have been one of the hardest decisions of her life and painful to stay away from the people she had grown up with. However there was one question he had to ask since he'd be in big trouble if the answer turned out to be what he thought it might be.

"Am I in any danger of becoming a 'carrier' to this plague?" He asked hoping that the answer was no since it would mean the failure of his mission if it proved otherwise.

"No. As I mentioned, the plague only becomes active when it interacts with an environment matching that of Konoha. So long as I remain here it will remain dormant and never harm anyone." Kaede replied reassuringly.

Hoping it wasn't too obvious he sagged a bit in relief since it meant he could still take his mother's remains to Konoha and tie up any loose ends there that he had to.

"Alright then. Just give me some time to regain some chakra and I'll be out of your hair." He said dropping most of his guard but making sure to take note of all the ways in and out of the building.

"What about the bird?" Kaede asked pointing to the eagle hawk he'd patched up as best he could.

"Well I was kinda hoping I could leave it with you since I'm on my way back home to Konoha." He replied trying to sound casual about it yet firm, "I kinda have a schedule to keep and can't stick around here too long."

"So that's it? Save it, patch it up quick and then dump it on someone else?" She asked with some surprise and a lot of annoyance.

"I'd take it with me if I could, of course, but considering how banged up it is I doubt moving the bird around a lot would be good for its health." He replied trying make her see why he couldn't bring the eagle hawk with him.

"Well I can fix that problem at least!" She said with determination as she walked over to the eagle hawk.

With a quick forming of three seals that he instantly recognized as those for the Shôsen Jutsu and when the final seal was formed, Kaede placed her hands on the bird and closed her eyes to concentrate. It was something of a surprise for someone to perform such a technique after living for twelve years as a normal person rather than a ninja, but given that his mom had managed it, he supposed it wasn't much of a surprise that Kaede could as well. Figuring that the woman would be a while, he decided to inspect his backpack to see how well the food he bought had fared and if there was anything that needed to be thrown away. While there were definitely some things that were no longer salvageable, yuck, most of the food would still be edible even though it'd probably taste weird. After all, he was pretty sure that some of the stuff he'd bought wasn't supposed to be mixed together like that but then again maybe he was wrong. It wasn't like he was an expert on Asian food so he could be completely mistaken.

_Guess I'll find out when I try and eat it. _He thought as he finished arranging the food back into some semblance of order in his backpack while leaving some out for a quick meal.

Using his false memories as a Jounin of Konoha, he began to eat the various foods before him in the way he thought they were supposed to be eaten. Some methods were obvious since some of what he'd chosen to eat resembled common American food but in other cases he was left wondering what part of the fish/squid/thing you were supposed to eat and which you were not. He was glad that Kaede had her eyes closed because he was certain that if anyone saw him right now, be they friend, foe or other, they'd find the expressions on his face and his movements quite amusing. Eventually, though, he managed to finish it all and, surprise of surprises, he didn't think he was going to spew or need to spend over in an hour in the bathroom anytime soon. Honestly most of the stuff was pretty good but some of the stuff he would most definitely only eat if he absolutely had to in the future. There were just some things that were not meant to enter the Xan-man's mouth, nor be digested in the Xan-man's stomach.

Two minutes after he finished his meal, Kaede opened her eyes and looked distinctly fatigued but fortunately in no danger of dropping to the floor. With somewhat unsteady legs she walked over the plunked herself down in the nearest available chair, looking like she would like nothing better than to take a long nap as soon as possible.

"I have done all I can for the poor thing. Still, considering that I'm pretty rusty with healing techniques, I think I did pretty good, all things considered." Kaede said with some satisfaction in her voice.

The proof of her statement was beginning to move around a bit more and no longer seemed to be experiencing the same level of pain that it had over an hour ago. Most of all, the broken wing, while still tender from the looks of it, was no longer broken, which was great considering it was the most obvious and severe of all the injuries. At the moment the eagle hawk was working to get to its feet and looked like it was feeling quite a bit of anxiety. It was then that he realized, with some embarrassment, that in all the action since rescuing the bird he'd forgotten to remove the hood that Hachiro had put on it. Approaching the bird cautiously, he grabbed the edges of the hood and in one swift pull took it off the flapping bird in one go, not wanting to take the chance that it might snap at one of his fingers with its beak. Fortunately he was quick enough and, in the blink of an eye, the bird's head was freed and the animal was once again able to observe the world around it. Snapping its head around, it seemed to take a look around the room, no doubt to find out where the hell it was, before finally settling its eyes on him. Naturally that was when it decided to toddle on over to him, occasionally flaring its wings at him and squawking at him in a tone that was either angry or excited.

He wasn't sure that he wanted it to be either considering the way his luck usually went.

After a few steps and a hop, it was right in front of him, looking at him, cocking its head in one direction for a while before switching to the other direction. It was weird for him because, for some reason, he sensed something from the bird, a sort of intelligence, and he wasn't sure what to make of it. It was something different from the sort of intelligence you'd expect an animal to have and yet he wasn't ready to say that it was anything approaching human intelligence. It… defied defining… but at the same time there was no mistake that it was there and being used to gain his measure, if his gut feeling was right. Then without warning the eagle hawk nipped at one of his fingers but, half a second after he jerked his hand back a bit in shock of the act, he was hit with a second bout of surprise in that the nipping hadn't really hurt. If he had to liken it to anything he would compare it to the playful bites that some dogs did with their owners - just enough pressure was exerted in the bite for it to be called a bite, but not enough to cause pain in the owner.

_Could that be it? _He thought as an unlikely idea popped into his head about what the bird's action might be indicating.

Deciding to test the theory he put his hand back within range of the bird and waited to see if it would nip at the hand again. Less than five seconds later he got the confirmation he was looking for when the eagle hawk nipped at the hand again, just as gentle as before. Deciding to take a risk he reached up and began to pet its head the same way he would a cat or a dog and the purring like sound he got from it was enough to bring a smile to his face.

"Looks like someone likes you," Kaede said with a smile of her own.

"Yeah. Looks like." He said as he kept petting the bird before looking to Kaede, "So just how much were you able to heal?"

"Well I naturally focused on the wing first and then went on to heal some of the more serious burns but that was all I could do with the strength that I had." Kaede replied her eyes never leaving the happy bird in front of him, "Most of the cuts she got this morning are still there and are going to have to be checked and tended to every day, but that'll heal itself naturally in time. All in all, I'd say it's safe now for you to take it with you to Konoha."

"So what do you think Ava?" He asked the bird with amusement at his situation, "Do you want to come to Konoha with me?"

In response the eagle hawk he'd now named Ava walked up next to his right arm and hopped onto it looking like she was ready to go right then and there. For a moment both he and Kaede were stunned, since for a moment it looked to them like the bird had actually understood what he had been asking like a normal human would. In that instant he flashed back to his earlier impression of a mysterious intelligence he'd sensed earlier and wondered just how close to human intelligence Ava actually was at the moment. It was definitely something to think about on the way to Konoha and even consult experts about when he finally got to the ninja village.

"I like your enthusiasm, Ava, but we won't be going yet." He said looking about the room for a place to rest for a bit, "Better to wait until nighttime to leave the town. At least then we'll have a better chance of getting out without being spotted by Hachiro and his people."

Ava cocked her head to one side then hopped off of his arm before settling down to get some rest of her own. It was weird to see her appear to understand his words completely, but at least it would mean one less hassle for him to worry about. He knew nothing about training animals and didn't want to have to worry about the bird flying off or getting into trouble on his way to Konoha.

With the decision made, he went over to a corner near the front window and after placing his sleeping bag on the floor to act as a cushion he sat down and settled down for a nap.

"Wake me up just after sunset, okay, Kaede?" He asked of the former Konoha ninja.

"Certainly. Have a good nap." She replied with a polite smile before going off to do whatever it was she had been doing before giving him refuge in her home.

With all the planning and details settled for the next while, he planned to do exactly that and slipped off into dreamland.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_One Hour After Sunset, Kaede's Home_

"Ow! What the hell!?" Xander exclaimed as he was rather painfully woken up by a nasty hurt in his right hand.

Looking down at the hurt appendage he saw Ava standing there looking at him with an air of impatience and perhaps annoyance with scratch marks on his right hand, naming her as the one who woke him up. Glaring at the bird for a moment, he almost started scolding the animal before he noticed the change in lighting in the room and realized that a considerable amount of time had passed since he had fallen asleep. Deciding to shelve disciplining the walking feather duster for a while, he got to his feet and, after putting his sleeping bag away, decided to see if he could find Kaede. After all, she had gone out of her way to help him and Ava out, so he had to see if there was something he could do in exchange even if it was something simple like give her some of the money his mother had left for him in her safety deposit box. It wasn't much, but he owed her and he really believed that an honorable man paid his debts back no matter what.

Deciding against walking around the house calling out her name he chose instead simply to explore the house and see if he could find her simply by searching it. Room by room he went and while he didn't find Kaede he did learn a bit more about her. For one thing, she had a room where she apparently tried her best to grow medicinal herbs and plants but unfortunately, due to Earth country's harsh climate, it was clearly not an easy task. The lack of water and good soil were probably right at the top of the problems she had to overcome in order to get anything to grow. Add to that the fact that she was apparently not very wealthy and his estimation of her skill went up a few notches. The other rooms were pretty much what you'd expect of a home for a single woman but in not one of the rooms did he find Kaede. Going back to the living room/dining room, he wondered where she could be and, unfortunately, his Sunnydale trained paranoia as well as experience with his own special brand of bad luck had him immediately thinking the worst. That being, of course, that Kaede had tricked him and was rounding up Hachiro and his gang to ambush the not-quite-Konoha-ninja on his way out of town. After all, while the forehead protector she had shown him certainly seemed to be genuine, it was not impossible that she might have simply acquired it from a dead ninja. His false ninja memories did support this possibility since a number of Konoha ninja did die in enemy territory during the rough times with Earth country.

_If that is the case then I'll have to leave immediately and hope that the bully and his goon squad haven't had time to get into position. _He thought to himself as he immediately slipped his backpack onto his back and prepared to leave.

Kneeling down, he allowed Ava to hop onto his arm and then raised her up so that she could perch on his shoulder, since he'd probably need both arms soon. He was just beginning to approach the door when it was violently opened and then slammed by Kaede as she rushed in. To say that the woman looked uneasy would be putting it mildly and her appearance certainly supported the idea that something was up. Her clothes were dirty and her hair was in complete disarray and while he didn't think she obsessed over her looks like a certain Queen C he knew, he also didn't think she was at the other end of the cleanliness spectrum. She didn't look injured or anything but that didn't necessarily mean that nothing was wrong.

"You okay Kaede?" He asked as he carefully moved so as not to be visible in the window at the front of the building.

"No, and you won't be either if you step outside." She replied once she managed to reign in her emotions a little, "Somehow Hachiro knows that you're still in town despite your decoy clone and even suspects that it was someone in this area that is hiding you."

"Damn! That will make things tougher but still, these are pretty much street thugs we're talking about here right?" He asked rhetorically as he voiced out the situation and his chances, "I might have to push the envelope a little in the jutsu department, but I can still take them on if I have to."

"No, you don't understand, they're not just Hachiro's people out there!" She said trying with words to convey the severity of the situation, "He's called in his boss and others who rank above him in to catch you! They're all former ninja from the hidden village of Rock!"

"What!? Why?! I mean all I did was make them look like idiots and steal a bird they were pretty much beating to death anyways!" He asked, a little confused as to why any group of criminals would call in so much muscle just to get him.

"I'm not sure, but I overheard one of the boss' subordinates say that there was something special about the bird and Hachiro was trying some stupid way of exploiting it." Kaede said, regaining some of her composure but looking no less concerned about the current situation.

That sort of made sense since, in the regions where the hidden villages resided, there existed animals that weren't exactly comparable with the kind you could find elsewhere in the world. The dogs trained by the Inuzuka clan of Konoha were proof enough of that but he had never heard of birds that could be used like that or for any other purpose. What was so special about Ava that it would warrant an effort like this to find her? Shaking his head in frustration at all the loose ends, he decided that in the end it didn't matter because it didn't change the fact that trouble was heading his way big time! The question now became: how to get the hell out of this crazy town without revealing his true nature as well as not getting caught? Given his luck, he was pretty certain they had already positioned men at all the more obvious ways out of the town plus a few that might be chosen by ninja. He was definitely beginning to wish he hadn't used the bunshin no jutsu earlier because at least then he would have had a few more escape routes to choose from. What was done was done, though, and there was no use beating himself up over something that couldn't be changed. After a few moments consideration, he came up with three plans for getting out of the city and while all of them had flaws, they at least had a chance of succeeding.

First was to use henge no jutsu to impersonate one of Hachiro's men and try and slip by one of the groups on the path with the least amount of guards. He was fairly certain that he could at least approach the group and get into their midst before trouble started but he wasn't so sure he could lose them once they started suspecting something. After all, he knew next to nothing about Hachiro or his cronies other than they were complete pricks that liked torturing defenseless animals. Add to that he didn't know what sort of orders the boss might have given out and he might trip their suspicions early if he didn't know what the goon's orders had been. Still, if he could even get to the rear of the group, he might be able to make a run for it and, depending on how soon the ninja with the boss caught on, he might be able to get away.

The second option was to cause some kind of commotion in the town that might draw a large enough number of the goon squad to investigate that it would leave one of the routes out of town practically vacant. The thing about that was that it might also bring harm to some of the innocent townspeople, since not only did they seem to depend on one another for survival but the thugs might also get pissed at being fooled and take it out on the people. Despite his determination to get to Konoha, he wouldn't allow himself to sacrifice others in order to achieve that goal.

Lastly there was what was probably the riskiest idea for getting out of the town in one piece and that was to use henge no jutsu to transform into a ninja from the hidden village of Cloud. He was fairly certain that he could come up with a half decent outfit, since he could use bits and pieces from what he'd seen those three Terakan bastards had worn, and use it to come up with an original outfit. He had also copied enough of their moves with his sharingan that he could actually use them in a fight half-decently. Going with this strategy would allow him greater freedom as far as what he could do and, even better, would be it would place the blame on a country he had to admit he didn't like very much. He doubted that it would start a war or anything, but it would at least make sure that the blame wouldn't fall on Konoha or even be connected to one Uchiha Xander. The flaw with this plan was that he didn't know what level these former ninjas from the village of rock were at. Were they chuunins or Jounins? Would he finally hit a patch of good luck and find out that they were genins that got kicked out of their village?

_Yeah right! Like that is so the sort of luck I've been getting lately! _He thought to himself as he figured the odds of that last possibility being true to be around the same as being the MAN at Sunnydale High School.

Still, it was the best option he had at the moment, so without further adieu, he formed the hand seals and, one henge no jutsu later, his clothes had changed to match that worn by Manzo and Taiji with Chiyo's mask to further conceal his appearance. With the forehead protector bearing the symbol for the hidden village of cloud firmly on display for all to see, he figured he was ready to make a break for freedom.

"What are you doing?" Kaede asked, obviously not entirely sure she understood the 'complexity' of his plan.

"Basically I plan on ninjaing my way out of town and I am using this disguise to make sure they go after the wrong country when I get away from them." He replied as made sure that his backpack was secure enough on his back.

"Are you out of your MIND!?" Kaede exclaimed in both shock and anger, "You might wear the uniform of a Jounin but I know you can't be more than a chuunin at your age! There's no way you could beat them all!"

"Who said anything about beating them all?" He asked with a playful smile, "All I plan to do is make it past the group blocking my path and then running like hell towards the boarder between Earth country and Grass country. These guys might be mad enough to hunt me down in their own back yard, but I doubt they'd be willing to cause a mess in another countries sandbox."

"You're assuming, of course, that the ninjas from the hidden village of rock don't get in your way and stop you." Kaede said with a little less anger but it was still present, "Besides they're called former ninja for a reason. They could've been uncontrollable killing machines and been kicked out because they couldn't follow orders."

"First of all, if they were uncontrollable killing machines, then Tsuchikage would have had them killed rather than let them run free." He reasoned out to her the flaw in her words, "As for not being able to follow orders, I see that as a good thing since it means that they won't work together to stop me and I might even be able to trick them into fighting one another."

"You're still assuming you have the skill to go up against them and not get killed," she pointed out, unwilling to concede this argument just yet.

"Like I said earlier, I don't plan on defeating them. As long as I can make it past their little mob of followers and make a break for it, I should be alright." He said before walking towards the door.

"Your sensei must have had his hands full training you." She said shaking her head in defeat, knowing that she could not do anything more to dissuade him from his chosen course of action.

"Probably would have if that had been the case," he said and, before she could comment on his comment, he was out the door and on the rooftop of the building across the street heading southwards.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_Southern Edge of Town, Three Minutes Later_

_Okay so Kaede **wasn't** exaggerating things when she said I'd be safer staying inside!_ He thought to himself as he took in the assembly of hired muscle covering his departure route as well as the former ninja of the hidden village of Rock.

When Kaede had said that Hachiro had called in some reinforcements, he'd expected maybe a total of twenty people, including the former ninja. He was NOT expecting over forty with ten of them being former ninja and none of them looking lower than a chuunin in rank. This was a great deal more than he had been prepared to deal with but, at the same time, he knew he had to give it a shot before the number of enemies got any greater. The question was how to create enough chaos to mess up whatever plans they'd come up with while at the same time providing him with the opening he'd need to make a break for it. He already had in mind the technique needed for creating the chaos but for making it past the ninja that was where he was coming up with a blank.

_Oh well! I always do my best thinking on the fly anyway. _He thought as he began to form the hand seals for the first phase of his plan before muttering, "Lightning rain no jutsu!"

With those words he began tossing spheres of electric blue energy in the direction of the mass of enemies and watched as they exploded about six feet above the hired muscle's heads, raining pencil size bolts of electricity down on them. Just as he'd expected, the weaker ones of the bunch fell to the ground after the first few seconds of the barrage and weakened the slightly stronger ones, preventing them from acting for the moment. In the end, it was only five of the former ninja that were strong enough to mount any kind of counterattack, despite the pain they had to be feeling. Less than half a minute later one of the five toughest ninja spotted him and, just as he saw the man form a hand seal the roof of the building beneath him, transformed into a thick stream of flowing mud. Surprised, he stopped using the lightning rain technique and could feel Ava digging in a bit more with her feet from her perch in the top of his backpack. Deciding to go with the flow, he allowed the mudslide to carry him to the ground but the instant that his feet found solid purchase he instantly went on the move in order to keep himself from being a stationary target. This only delayed his confrontation with the five former ninja still standing by a few seconds, since in less than a minute they were within striking distance of him.

Determined to keep them from attacking in any kind of formation, he slipped three kunai into each of his hands and threw them at the approaching ninja. While two of them did break off their approach, the three in the center of the group were apparently skilled enough to deflect his kunai away from their bodies. Not willing to risk forcing Ava to try flying just yet or wanting to get into close quarters with the three approaching ninja, he decided to risk another jutsu with a little surprise hidden inside.

_Rat, Tiger, Dog, Ox, Hare, Tiger! _He thought to himself as he made the seals and yelled, "Katon: Hôsenka no Jutsu!"

With those words he brought his right hand up to his mouth and let loose a barrage of fireballs at the oncoming ninja and, for a second, they were surprised at the fire element attack coming from a supposed ninja from the hidden village of cloud. However the larger one of the trio recovered first and stopped before immediately forming hand seals in an attempt to counter the attack.

"Doton: Doroku Gaeshi!" The large man cried out before slamming his hands into the ground and somehow raised a perfectly solid wall from the ground to protect both him and his two friends from the oncoming fireballs.

_Shit! Didn't expect them to know that technique! _He thought as both his fireballs and the hidden shurikens within slammed uselessly into the stone barrier.

It was then that he noticed movements from the side and realized that he'd been suckered into focusing his attention on the three enemies approaching from the front and ignoring the two ninjas that had broken off to the sides. With no time to think, his body executed a move he instinctively knew would help him but one that also was recognizable to any ninja with a brain in his skull. In a flash, he performed a double Konoha Reppû, sweeping the legs of both the ninjas coming from the side and taking them, if only for a few moments, off their feet.

_Crap! There is no WAY those guys don't know what that move just was and which hidden village it belongs to!_ He thought to himself as he tried to think of a way to end this before he let anything more slip out that he didn't want slipped.

Immediately his mind clicked on an idea that would be wonderful if it worked but not so great if it didn't. Still, as he watched the two he had leg swept rejoin the three in front of him, he knew he didn't exactly have time to discuss things in a committee.

Quickly forming the two seals necessary, he put his hands to the ground he fiercely stated, "Doton: Retsudotenshô!"

Just as he'd hoped, the five ninja in front of him had both recognized the technique and did exactly what he hoped they'd do in order to avoid being sucked into the ground beneath their feet. However in, doing so, they set themselves up for his next move that was half a move he picked up from Taiji and half a move he remembered from his false memories of Konoha. Reaching into his kunai holsters, he quickly found the special kunai that he'd made for part of his training and, with speed that surprised even him a bit, he threw five kunai at his airborne opponents. For a moment he was afraid that they'd deflect the kunai or use the Kawarimi no Jutsu, but it appeared that Lady Luck had decided to take pity on him and used her powers to tilt the odds in his favor. Like clockwork the five kunai buried themselves into the shoulders of the five former ninja from the village of Rock and that meant it was time for the next phase in his plan.

Forming seals quickly, before the enemy could pull out the kunai, he yelled, "LIGHTNING BLAST NO JUTSU!"

With a flash of light, chakra-forged bolts of electricity shot down the wires he'd tied to the ends of the kunai he'd thrown and followed their designated paths to their assigned targets. With some satisfaction, but also quite a bit of fatigue, he watched as the blasts of electricity slam into his five enemies and cause them to jerk in pain before falling into heaps on the ground. Taking a moment to see if they would get back up, he was relieved when they stayed put and decided to take this opportunity to bolt while he had it. Directing what chakra he still had that wasn't being used to sustain the henge no jutsu to his legs, he bolted to the south route out of the area that he had chosen earlier. As soon as he reached some rocky outcroppings, he leapt up onto them and began to seek out the most difficult terrain he could manage traveling on without sacrificing much speed. Hopefully this would cause any pursuers some trouble in following him and slow them down enough that his lead on them could only grow rather than decrease.

For the next hour straight he continued on his path, zigging and zagging every once and awhile to make his path less discernable, before he finally was forced by his body to stop and catch his breath as well as cancel the henge no jutsu. Breathing like a runner that had just finished a solid hour of moderate running, he took stock of himself and his surroundings. As far as energy levels went, he still had enough to get another hour or so of running in, but in order to do so jutsus of any sort were off limits. Despite the advances he'd been able to make in increasing his stamina in maintaining jutsus over longer periods of time, they were still a drain on his system.

_From here on out, speed and distance are the priorities. _He thought to himself as he took a steadying breath before once more breaking into a run in a southeasterly direction.

Thus with focus and determination, he ran for the safer boarders of Grass country and the definitely safe boarders of Fire country.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

_A Short Distance Away, Same Time_

"An impressive first performance wouldn't you say?" Asked the slimy voice as the owner watched the subject of his statement disappear from sight.

"Indeed. Especially since he never really had any formal training from a sensei," replied the first speaker's companion. "It would be interesting to see how good he could become once paired with an appropriate teacher."

_Indeed. _Thought the fork-tongued man with his eyes never leaving the spot where he'd last seen the newest interest of his.

It had been three days ago that one of his operatives had reported young Alexander stepping out of the airport nearest to the boarders of the hidden villages. In response, he had reviewed all the likely routes the young man might take to get to his destination and put a team in each location. He had just been fortunate to choose the one that the newest Uchiha had strolled into yesterday, but it was definitely an ominous occurrence to say the least. One might almost say that Fate herself was implying that the futures of both he and the boy were now connected. An interesting idea, especially with what he might do to the boy should he prove to be up to his standards, but that wouldn't happen for a while yet so there was still time to consider his options. In the meantime he would dispatch what resources he had that weren't tied up in the main operation preparations to make sure that the boy arrived in Konoha in one piece. Oh, there wouldn't be any obvious signs that the young Uchiha was being protected, but any seedy elements that tried to delay Alexander would be **discouraged** from doing so.

"Let's go." He said and, with a flicker of movement, he was on the move back to the hidden village he'd founded for himself.

"At once, Orochimaru-sama!" Kabuto declared before following his Lord's example.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&


	5. Follow then fight the leader

Fourteen Days Later

_Food._ Chirped the voice in his head for what had to be the twentieth time this morning.

"For the **last** time, Ava, **NO!**" He said glaring at the eagle hawk on his shoulder while trotting down the dirt road he'd been traveling down since dawn that morning.

In response to this, the bird nipped at his ear with her beak in a way that was **not** the playful light nipping she'd done the first time she'd laid eyes on him. That only got him glaring at her even more and wishing he'd never saved her feather duster butt from Hachiro and his cronies back in that town. It had been nine days ago when he'd found out what was so special about the beak face on his shoulder that it warranted former ninja and over forty goons coming after him - apparently Ava was some kind of ninja bird and had the potential to form some kind of telepathic connection with someone if the conditions were right. Hachiro and his band of idiots had apparently thought that either the eagle hawk was a dud or might be inspired to manifest her special ability if put through hell. BAKAS! In any case, it had been nine days ago this morning when he had been woken up by insistent pecking and an image of a mouse in his mind. Puzzled by the image and annoyed by whomever, or in this case **whatever,** was disturbing his beauty sleep, he'd opened his eyes a crack to find Ava looking down at him.

It hadn't been until later that day that he began to notice that something strange was going on when all of a sudden in his head an image of the road behind him and a rabbit of some kind running across it flashed into being. He had been given only a moment to consider it before Ava had leapt off his back and made good use of her recently-regained ability to fly to pounce on the long-eared animal. It was then when he saw the rabbit that Ava had in her talons that he figured out what had just happened and what it likely meant. He'd run a few experiments to make sure, such as asking Ava to look in a direction and **show** him what she saw, and in the end his theory turned out to be the truth. Up until yesterday he had though this was pretty cool and that it could help him quite a bit as a ninja in the future.

That was until the arrogant peacock learned how to talk in his head.

The best he could figure was that she was picking up English through their connection as time went by and was slowly learning how to use it. She still couldn't form a complete sentence and it was rare to hear more than three words strung together, but the word along with an image usually managed to convey what she wanted to say. For the past hour all she'd managed to convey to him though was how stubborn she was about getting her fill of food. They'd eaten breakfast a little after dawn and he'd given her what meat he could while not messing up the ration schedule he'd drawn up. While they had managed to cover quite a bit of ground in the last two weeks, such as finally making it into fire country, they had still not gotten a trustworthy lead on where Konoha was located. Thus he had divided what food they currently had accordingly so it would not only be filling but also last for as long as possible. Unfortunately for Xander, Ava apparently thought the portions should be bigger or at least that she should get more than her allotted amount. So for the last two and a half hours he's been hearing her demand more food in his head and his patience was seriously starting to wear thin.

She wasn't exactly injured anymore since most of the serious cuts had already scabbed over and those that still needed bandaging were pretty easy to take care of. Therefore, the 'she is still injured, you cannot snap at her' card was no longer in play and he could both think and speak as freely as he wanted. Unfortunately it looked like either Ava's grasp of the English language was not far along enough for her to understand that she wasn't getting anymore food or she's was just plain stubborn. Personally, he was betting on the latter rather than the former since just about every female human he knew was stubborn to one degree or another, so why not have that carry over to female animals. He hoped he wouldn't have to remind her too many more times because, if she went too far, he was going to have to do something **drastic**.

He was just about to look through his backpack for **something** that would pacify the bird without depleting their food supply much when a sound reached his ears that caused him to freeze on the spot. It was faint, he almost missed it in fact, but he was almost positive that what he was hearing were footsteps and maybe some talking between one or more people. Also, if his ears were right, they were heading in his direction and would be within eyesight of him inside of ten minutes. Now normally when he was in danger of coming into contact with a traveler on the road, he'd just use henge no jutsu to transform into your stereotypical traveler and then wait until they left the range of his eyes before changing back. This time, however, he was considering a different course of action, one that he hoped might give him a solid lead towards finding Konoha, so without any further delay, he leapt into the trees to his left. Moving in deeper so he was four trees into the forest at least, he presses himself up against the trunk of the tree so as to minimize anything that might give him away to someone on the road. Standing as still as death and keeping his breathing as silent as possible, he listens carefully, measuring the distance of the newcomers by their footsteps, and begins to catch their spoken words.

"Do not let Neji's victory discourage you, Lee! While he might have the benefit of being born in a noble family, your hard work will pay off in time," came a voice that sounded like one of those idiot actors that liked the sound of their own voice.

"Yes sir!" Said a younger voice that was probably this 'Lee' person and, obviously, the guy idolized Mr. Sound Bite.

"Maybe, Gai-sensei, but I don't think he'll ever be as good as Neji. I mean, hard work can help him get better but there're just some obstacles you can't overcome." A female voice that was obviously convinced of the superiority of this Neji person stated.

"Not with that attitude, Tenten!" Declared Gai-sensei with conviction, "Believing in yourself is crucial to overcoming any obstacle! If you do not believe you can beat someone, then you have as good as lost even before the battle has begun! That is why you must always believe in yourself, Lee! Believe in yourself and your dreams of becoming a great ninja will come true."

_Yes! Lady Luck must have a thing for me to send some true blue ninjas my way!_ He thought with glee since ninjas would likely provide him with better info than some random stragglers on the road, _Now, if they can only drop a hint as to which village they're from, I'll be in business! PleasebeKonohaninjaPleasebeKonohaninja!!_

"In fact when the next Chuunin exams are held in Konoha, you can be assured that I will submit your name to Hokage-sama myself and you will have your chance to prove yourself in front of everyone!" Gai-sensei said in a tone implying that he had no doubt that his student would do well.

_SCORE!!!!_ He thought as it was finally revealed that these were Konoha ninja that were walking by and not some other ninja or wannabe ninja.

Now all he had to do was find some way to follow them without revealing himself and he was as good as at Konoha! It would not be easy though, since one of them was from a noble family in Konoha, all of which had a special ability that could spot him if he got sloppy, but given that it sounded like they were genins traveling home with their Jounin teacher, he believed he could do it with some careful thought. Following them on foot probably wouldn't be feasible since, even with his Sharingan, he'd be hard pressed to keep track of them and stay out of sight at the same time. Also, depending on which noble family this Neji guy was a part of, there was a distinct chance he'd be sniffed out, ratted out or seen if he followed too closely behind them. Also, his tracking skills were just barely at the rank of amateur, so trying to follow them based on footprints or broken twigs would be iffy at best. It would only take one misread of the evidence to lose them and then he'd have to start looking for Konoha on his own again. Given how annoying Ava was getting concerning her food portions, he wasn't relishing the idea of spending another two weeks wandering around with rats and rabbits in his head.

_Wait! That's it! Time for Ava to finally __**earn**__ her larger than normal portion! _He thought as the proverbial lightning bolt hit his head and the equally proverbial light bulb clicked on.

It was the perfect plan! All he had to do was wait for them to get just outside of hearing distance and then he could have Ava follow them from the air while telepathically transmitting which road they took back to him. After all, it was doubtful that these genin and their Jounin teacher would think anything of an eagle hawk just happening to fly in the same direction as they were traveling. Also, with his feathered friend sending him images of their path choices telepathically, the chances of the ninja connecting a wild bird to a pursuing ninja would be non-existent. It couldn't fail! Doing his best not to let his excitement at finally getting a strong lead on Konoha give his position away, he continued to listen to the ninjas as they began to pass by the spot where he jumped into the trees. For a moment he was worried that they might see his footprints in the ground and figure out that he had jumped into the trees but when they continued walking along without so much as a pause or a change in their conversation he felt it was safe to say that they suspected nothing. After all, if they knew he was there they would have confronted him right? It didn't make any sense to him that they'd choose to ignore an unknown on purpose when it would probably be simple for them to catch him immediately. As their words became almost impossible to make out, he decided it was time to put his plan into action.

"Alright Ava, you've been wanting a bigger ration of food for a while now and here's your chance to earn it." He said after coaxing the bird onto his right forearm, "I want you to follow those four from the air and then send images back to me whenever they change directions. I want to follow them to where ever it is they're going, understand?"

An image of an extra large rabbit or at least twenty fish appeared in his mind and he knew that this was Ava naming her price for this task.

"Fine! Once we get in to see Hokage-sama and I give him my report, I'll take you to the first fish or rabbit stand I see and it for you." He said, not liking the dent that this would put in his funny money fund (as he liked to call the local currency), "Just get going, 'cause if you lose them then you don't get squat!"

With that threat the female eagle hawk took to the air and, three minutes later, transmitted images of the group of ninjas back to him telepathically. Confident that the overgrown feather duster had sufficient motivation not to lose her quarry, he hopped down from the tree he was in and made his way back to the main dirt road. After checking the immediate area for any surprises, since there was always the off chance that he **had** been spotted by the ninja and they were just perfect actors, he began to head down the road to follow them. He kept his pace at that of a brisk jog rather than an all out run, since he didn't want to risk getting too close but also not wanting to see if the link he had with Ava had a distance limit.

For the next five hours he continued the pursuit with the eagle hawk, who came close once or twice to losing her targets but picking them up again after a while. He was a little worried by that fact, since he knew that all it took was a second or two of cover for a good ninja to pull off a kage bunshin no jutsu or a simpler bunshin no jutsu. He just hoped that Ava's eyes were good enough to notice any such attempts at deception or he'd probably wind up getting ambushed soon enough. It was a common tactic in situations where one was being pursued to send shadow clones or normal replications ahead while under cover and then wait for your pursuer to pass by. He was pretty sure this was not the case, but just the same he'd keep an eye on the environment as he passed by and keep an eye out for any sign of hiding ninjas. It briefly occurred to him to use Sharingan to try and pick them out of the vegetation, but he decided against it eventually since it would tell anyone who saw his eyes more than he wanted to reveal at the moment. Better to save it as an ace up his sleeve than use it right away.

By the time that the sun started to set, he was wondering whether or not he was farther away from Konoha than he thought or the ninja he was following were just taking their sweet old time getting home. It had been about twenty minutes since Ava had last sent an image showing which direction the four of them had taken when coming to a fork in the road. Looking ahead, he could see that very same fork getting bigger as he approached it and wondered how long he'd have to wait for his feathered friend to send her next image, since he knew that given the terrain it would not be long before the ninja would change direction. Since he'd ordered her to fly overhead and follow them, she had been giving him updates every fifteen to twenty-five minutes, depending on how long the road went before branching off. So while it was turning out to be one of the longer periods of time between updates, he wasn't all that worried since he figured that if they hadn't spotted Ava in the past five hours then they weren't going to period. However, as he got closer to the fork on the road, he spotted something lying on the dirt right in the center of the two paths. This set off warning bells for him since he didn't recall anything in the image that Ava sent back to him earlier that could explain this object before him. Slowing to a steady walk he approached the form on the ground and attempted to ascertain what it could be based on its apparent size.

_Not big enough to be a person and not some sort of object given the odd shape._ He thought as with each step he drew closer to the object of his interest, _What could it be?_

It wasn't until he closed to about twenty-five meters that he was able to identify what he saw and it instantly put him on guard. Lying on the ground unconscious was Ava, not moving an inch aside from the steady rise and fall of her chest. This sight gave him some relief since he had been worried for a moment that she might have been either injured or killed, but still he kept his guard up as he approached his beaked buddy. He knew now without a doubt that Ava had been spotted and the fact that she had been placed right here where the last aerial visual shot had been taken meant that this was a trap. Normally, in situations like this, he'd back off and wait until later to come for Ava but seeing as how they had to have spotted him by now he figured he might as well spring the trap. They had already made the connection between him and Ava, so there was little point in pretending that there wasn't. Also, there was the fact that as long as they had the eagle hawk they'd have all they would need to catch him since abandoning the feathered female wasn't an option as far as he was concerned. So with deception gone and abandonment not an option, all he could do was rescue Ava then make the two of them scarce for a few days until they forgot about him.

Walking carefully up to Ava while looking for anything that looked like an explosive tag or some other kind of set trap, his mind was abuzz as he tried to figure out when the ninja would make their move. The best time, he figured, would be just as he reached his eagle hawk friend, since it would put both their targets in one spot making it easier to either kill or capture them. Which route this Gai-sensei and his team would take he didn't know since, depending on whether the country of fire was at war at the moment, 'kill on sight' might be a real possibility. Still, since it was a Jounin and his three genin he was talking about, he figured it would probably be capture since Lee and Tenten sounded too young to know what it was like to kill a person even if they were ninja.

Coming to less than seven steps away from Ava, he looked down at her once more to see if there were any obvious wounds on her that he would have to bandage up later.

_Doesn't look like they roughed her up too badl—_he thought before he noticed a serious discrepancy, _This isn't Ava!!_

Leaping away from the false Ava, one that was missing several crucial scars caused by Hachiro and his punks, he found his discovery verified as in a puff of displaced air and mist the 'helpless Ava' vanished to be replaced by a teenage girl. She had brown hair with two pizza pocket sized clumps in ear-like positions on the top of her head and a pink sleeveless shirt of oriental style. To top it all off were black pants and sandals and she was both stylish as well as a ninja and, right at that moment, she was coming at him with a kunai in each hand. Reacting on instinct born both of the Halloween possession and months of training, he pulled two kunai of his own from where they were stored, bringing them up into a guarding position. No more than two seconds later his kunai clashed with hers and he had to dig deep into the dirt road in order to keep himself from being pushed onto his ass. A flicker of movement from his right informed him that someone else is approaching and, immediately, he realized that this girl never intended to beat him but, rather, wanted to pin him down for her friend. Moving on a split second plan his mind cobbled together, he suddenly stopped pushing against the young woman's kunai and sidestepped, causing her to fall forward. Knowing that any competent ninja would be able to catch themselves, though, he insured that she'd fall by placing his left foot in front of her left leg and used his right to literally kick her butt. So, combining her own force with his sidestepping and forceful tripping, he did exactly what he hoped he could do, which was maneuver the girl into the path of her oncoming comrade.

_Her teammate is… a Bruce Lee look-a-like?! _He thought watching the collision of two people occur and barely managed to avoid being taken down with them.

That was all he had time to consider since, instead of sending both his adversaries to the ground like he had intended, the Bruce imitator managed to use his teammate to push off of and land on his feet. Looking at him, clearly there was only one word he could use to describe the guy's Beatles haircut, bushy eyebrows, green jumpsuit and orange leg warmers.

Weird.

However judging from the bandages on the guys fists he could very well be a serious taijutsu ninja, in which case the old adage of 'looks being deceiving' might come into play.

"You are most skilled to have been able to see through Tenten's disguise and cunning to evade our two person combination attack, but shall we see how you fare against me?" Asked the Bruce Lee wannabe before he assumed an odd fighting stance with one hand out front in a 'come' position while the other was placed behind his back.

"Maybe but do you think I could put my backpack down first? There are some things in it I would rather not have get damaged in a fight." He asked, hoping the guy was as honorable/polite/naïve as he sounded.

"Of course." Was the young man's only reply to the request made.

Deciding to take advantage of this opportunity, he slipped both kunai back into their compartments, slid off his backpack and put it on the side of the road before resuming his position in front of the Bruce Lee wannabe.

"It is only polite that we introduce ourselves before fighting," said the bushy eyebrow guy. "My name is Rock Lee."

_Either he's being honest or he watches entirely too much American TV. _He thought before replying, "My first name is Alexander and if you manage to defeat me, maybe I'll tell you my family name. Maybe."

"Very well. Let's begin!" Lee said and, with speed that was almost too much to counter, the green jumpsuit-wearing guy when he unleashed a swift right punch.

Reacting on pure instinct, since conscious thought would have taken too long, he moved his head to the side to evade the punch, but that apparently set him up for a kick to the head which sent him staggering backwards. Willing his senses to come back online quicker than normal, he was able to parry another punch and knowing it was coming use his left knee to block the repeat of the previous kick. Deciding that he wasn't going to last long if he allowed this guy to unveil his full skills, Xander decided to go on the attack by executing a palm thrust to the teenager's chest. The idea being to knock the wind out of Lee and thus rob the guy of the ability to put much power or speed behind any future attacks. After all, if you can't take in air, then your strength dries up quick, leaving you vulnerable.

Mr. Rock, however, must have realized this too because, with his left hand, he caught the palm thrust and clamped down preventing him from retracting the arm, "KONOHA SHOFU!!" Lee yelled, causing Xander's world became pain and a fog of disorientation.

All he could sense for certain was that he was airborne and in quite a bit of pain, with most of it centered around the jaw. It took three or four seconds for coherent thought to return and, when it did, the first thing he became certain of, other than he needed to make sure he landed right, was that going hand-to-hand with this guy was not a good idea. Starting out he had figured Lee would be pretty good but not great, seeing as how he was still obviously a genin, but either the quality of genins had gone up since his inherited memories were made or this guy was a veritable taijutsu prodigy. Managing a half-baked landing after reorienting himself mid-air, he decided that if he was going to beat Lee, he had to do something to minimize the effectiveness of his moves. Unfortunately there was only one move he was aware of that was non-lethal and might take this martial arts genius down.

Forming the seals quickly, he held his hands open in front of him and yelled "**RAIKOU KOUU NO JUTSU!!"**

**With that spheres of bluish-white energy appeared in his hands and, as soon as they did, he began to throw them both towards and above Lee, hoping the teenager with the Beatles style haircut would not clue into what the technique did until it was too late. As the spheres thrown directly at him reached the point of no return, Lee did as expected and leapt backwards a fair bit. Not far enough, though, since with a flick of his chakra the American Uchiha triggered each sphere, causing them all to begin raining down pencil sized bolts of charka lightning. While not a sadist or some other sicko that liked the pain of others, he did take some satisfaction in Rock's exclamations of pain as well as the sight of the Bruce wannabe going down to one knee.**

**"Something you should always keep in mind when fighting me, Lee: Never assume that what you see is what you get." He stated, hoping to sound stronger than he actually felt at the moment, "Still, you are definitely skilled at taijutsu, so I hope you won't mind if I just keep my distance."**

**"You assume that you're going to be allowed to dictate the pace of this battle," came a voice from behind that sounded almost as arrogantly upper class as Queen C back home.**

**Turning around, he only had enough time to see brown hair and pale white eyes before something slammed into his chest knocking him off his feet as well as making Lee's kick seem like a light tap in comparison. Rolling along the dirt road, his chest felt like every rib had been broken or at least severely bruised so that each time the front of his torso touched the road the pain flared considerably. However, amidst the pain, he knew that if he wanted any chance of winning to remain, he had to push aside the agony and get back to his feet. Fleeing wasn't an option both because they had Ava and because now that they had seen him it would likely be next to impossible to lose them considering how well they probably knew the area. So, forcing coherent thought back into his mind, he both his legs and his arms to get back to his feet and face his new opponent. What he saw standing no less than ten feet away from him and closing was ****NOT**** doing good things for his confidence or his chances for coming out on top. Taking in the long brown hair and a better look at the pale white eyes he now knew that he was facing a member of the Hyuuga clan of Konoha. The Hyuuga clan were pretty much at the top of the ladder as far as the noble family standings were concerned and they possessed a bloodline limited ability that made them a force to be reckoned with called Byakugan. It allowed them three hundred and sixty viewing among other things and that meant that they were practically impossible to sneak up on. Add to that their **Jūken style of hand-to-hand combat and the members of this clan were dangerous with a capitol D. That meant it was time to bring in his trump card and hope that at the very least it would buy him some time to come up with a way to counter this warrior of a noble house.

_SHARINGAN!!_ He yelled mentally has he channeled chakra to his eyes causing them to change from their usual chocolate brown to blood red and black with two black tomoes in each eye.

However, even as he used his clan's ability, he noticed that the damage had already been done as far as Jūken was concerned. The first attack by the Hyuuga clan member must have damaged some chakra pathways in his torso because it required decidedly more effort to channel the necessary chakra to his eyes to activate his Sharingan. It might have only delayed the activation by about a second or two, but in a battle like this a second or two could mean the difference between winning and getting one's ass kicked. Still it, for at least the time being, was allowing him to predict where the long-haired kid was going to strike next, giving him just enough time to get out of the way. He would have preferred to block and counter attack but if he remembered correctly all it took was a slight touch for the Gentle Fist style to do some damage. Therefore, logically, the kind of contact one has with his enemy by blocking an attack would **not** be in his best interests in this case.

"What… **Sharingan**?!" The teenager, Neji most likely by process of elimination, exclaimed before breaking off his offensive and leaping backwards a good fifteen paces.

_Gotta capitalize on this!_ He thought, knowing that the surprise would only keep Neji off balance for a second or two longer.

"KANASHIBARI NO JUTSU!!" He said after performing the necessary hand seals to execute the technique.

He knew the technique had worked the moment he saw Neji go rigid as a board and knew that if he wanted his odds of winning to improve, he had to take this member of the Hyuuga clan out of the fight NOW. Pushing past the pain, he charged in, intent on delivering a devastating combination of blows that would target the teenager's joints and chest area, the point of which being it would make it difficult for the wielder of Byakugan to both move as well as breathe, thus limiting his combat effectiveness. He came to an abrupt halt, however, and reversed course when he noticed airborne movement out of the corner of his right eye with Sharingan. Definitely a good thing since, if he had kept moving, he would have been hit with numerous shuriken and kunai that would have hurt **a LOT**. Looking in the direction the thrown weapons had come from, he saw that Tenten had recovered from Lee's earlier attack and was looking to make him pay for putting her in the path of said attack. This was **not good** since the paralysis he put on Neji wouldn't last long and, once he was back in the fight, the American Uchiha would have to fight the fight on two fronts with a third front on the way. After all, he wasn't foolish enough to think that his lightning rain technique would keep Lee down for much longer.

_There has to be a technique I can use to get her off my back long enough to take down Neji. One I hope that won't inflict serious harm on her. _He thought as a second volley of sharp metal objects were sent his way.

**In the end there was only one he could think of that might do the trick with the only catch being he would need to seriously cut back on the chakra usually used in the technique. After all, this move was known to cause third degree burns when done properly and all he wanted to do was stall her long enough to deal with Neji. Saying a mental prayer that she'd walk away from the technique with nothing more serious than really bad sunburns, he reached up and pulled down his mask.**

**"**KATON: HAISEKISHO!!" He said before blowing out a cloud of heated ash that was of a pretty impressive size.

Just as he'd hoped, the cloud stopped Tenten in her tracks and hopefully would keep her from throwing anything through it for fear hitting one of her teammates by accident. Now he just had to deal with Neji before Lee got his bearings back or the Hyuuga overcame the temporary paralysis. With extra effort, he turned away from the ash cloud and ran as fast as he could given the state of his chest towards the pale eyed teen that still appeared to be mostly paralyzed.

_Time to deliver some serious hurtin' bombs!_ He thought as he brought back a fist in preparation for delivering it to the Hyuuga's jaw.

**"**DAINAMIKKU-ENTORI!!" Came the voice of Gai-sensei and, before he could react, a devastating kick was delivered to his side sending him flying through the air then rolling along the ground.

_Oh yeah! Definitely a busted rib!_ He thought as the pain on the right side of his chest definitely spiked up to broken bone level.

Using what strength the pain hadn't robbed him of, he used his left arm to stop the rolling and keep his right side off the ground to keep the pain at a bearable level. Looking up, he confirmed that it was the Jounin sensei that had hit him and that the guy looked like an adult version of Lee. Rock was obviously copying his mentor and that pretty much made them the Batman and Robin of the ninja set.

That or a really weird father-son thing.

Knowing he was in no condition to fight any longer with a busted rib, he decided to pretend to slip into unconsciousness and hope that they took him to where they had the real Ava. Once he was sure it was really her, he'd make his move, grab her and then try and make a break for it. He knew his chances for making it very far in his state were slim but it was the only plan he had for escaping with his feathered friend that he could think of that might stand a chance of working.

"Are you alright Neji?" Gain-sensei asked with genuine concern for his genin student.

"Fine." Neji replied in a tone that made it clear that he was pissed at being caught off guard and caught in such a simple technique.

"Do not be too hard on yourself Neji. It was a surprise in itself to discover a ninja trailing us to begin with, much less find out that he possessed Sharingan." Gai-sensei said trying to comfort his student and minimize the damage to the teen's ego, "The important thing to remember was that we were victorious in the end."

He almost chuckled at the 'motivational speaker' way the guy seemed to talk and he obviously thought he was one of the 'cool people'. Gai was so corny sounding that if he went to Sunnydale he'd make Andrew look super cool by comparison.

Okay maybe not Andrew but definitely Jonathan.

"Who do you think he is, Gai-sensei?" Asked Lee, whom, apparently, was recovered enough to walk towards his teammates, based on the footsteps.

"I am not certain, Lee. However I could see no scarring around his eyes to indicate that his Sharingan eyes had been implanted, so that would mean that he is an Uchiha." Gai replied, actually sounding serious for once, "However, I was unaware that there were any missing Uchiha that existed."

"What should we do with him?" Tenten asked, sounding like she had a few 'unique' ideas that would no doubt be either painful or permanent for him.

"We will take him and his bird back to Konoha with us." Gai replied, making it clear that the decision was made, "With such a momentous discovery of a missing Uchiha with such significant skill, Hokage-sama will almost certainly want to speak with the young man."

"Hai, Gain-sensei." Tenten said, obviously not pleased that she would be unable to gain some measure of payback against him.

"Lee! Get the young man's backpack." Gai ordered in full commander tone, "Tenten, you will be the one to carry his eagle hawk. I will handle the young man myself. Neji you will take point and make sure we don't encounter any more surprises."

"Hai!" All three genin said before they went to pick up their respective burdens.

_Well at least I won't have to worry about getting into Konoha._ He thought with some disappointment since he was definitely going to lose points with Hokage-sama for being spotted as well as allowing himself to be paraded down the streets for all to see.

However, at the moment, he wasn't in any condition to protest since his bruised and broken ribs would almost completely immobilize him as well as make him pathetically easy to beat in a fight. His earlier hope that he'd be able to make a break for it once Ava got close enough was dashed as time gave him a better feeling for the severity of his injuries. Given how badly he was banged up, he doubted he could make one move without giving out a bellow of pain that would almost certainly bring the four ninja down on him. Even **if** he managed to get to his feet and **if** he managed to pick up Ava, he was pretty sure the best he'd be able to manage was something one might describe as a hobbling walk, which was not exactly the kind of speed necessary to outrun three genin and one Jounin. So, like it or not, his chances of getting into Konoha undetected were pretty much shot to hell and the best he could hope for was that he could keep the details of his mother's mission to himself until he got a moment alone with Hokage-sama.

"You fought well, young man. You epitomize the Springtime of Youth almost as well as my adorable Lee!" Gai said before he lifted Xander up off the ground with care not to jostle him too much, "I just know that it'll be an interesting story to tell."

_As long as you don't talk it'll be fine. _He thought, not knowing how long he'd be able to endure the man's 'hip teacher' attitude before snapping.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Two Hours Later, Konoha, Hokage Tower, Office of the Third Hokage

"Would it have killed you four to take a more discrete way here?" He asked crabbily as they entered Hokage-sama's office, "Half the village must have seen you drag me down the street and the other half will probably know about be within the hour."

"What does it matter to you? You'll probably be in jail or dead by the end of the day." Stated Neji with a look on his face that made it clear he believed that, because he spoke the words, it would become so.

"It matters, Ahou-sama, because I'd hoped I could meet with Hokage-sama **without** everyone in the **entire** village knowing about it!" He growled at Neji and only refrained from turning to glare at him because such a movement would aggravate his still sore torso.

It had been pretty much like this the entire way to Konoha and had only gotten worse once they'd passed through the village gates. Once he'd regained enough strength to walk under his own power, they'd tied him up and marched him all the way to Konoha with Neji in the lead, most likely because of how far ahead he could see, Tenten and Gai on either side of him with Lee taking up the rear. It was slow going because every step he took jostled his ribs and caused him significant pain but not enough apparently to get them to loosen the ropes any. When he finally laid eyes on the front gates of the village, he'd hoped that once inside they'd go some roundabout way to Hokage tower so that the number of people who saw him would be kept to a minimum. After all, none of the ninja in the team that'd captured him looked like glory hounds and, in his opinion, it would be more professional if his existence was kept a secret until the ruling body knew all the answers to the questions the people would ask. Instead, they marched him right down the main street to the hospital and even then only stayed long enough for one of the medical-nins to give him the all clear for a meeting with Hokage-sama before receiving treatment. He'd attempted to appeal to their inner professionalism and logic in the hopes that they'd at least **try** to avoid any further crowds but this only earned him variations on 'be quiet' by Ahou-sama.

Naturally this made sure that he and the Hyuuga would **NOT** be friends anytime soon or even be getting along anytime soon.

"And why is that young man?" A grandfatherly voice from the far corner of the room near the window said gently.

Looking in the direction the voice came from, his eyes came to rest on a fifty plus year old man dressed in red and white robes with a pipe in his mouth. It took less than a second for him to conclude that this was Hokage-sama, the very man he'd come to Konoha to report to, and without hesitation he went down to one knee and bowed his head in respect.

"Hokage-sama! I did not want a lot of people knowing about me because of the nature of what I have to report to you." He replied respectfully without looking up, "Given the secrecy involved in the matter, I figured the less people knew about me and why I was here the better."

"Considering that I cannot recall ever seeing you before or sending you on a mission of great secrecy, I'm afraid that you will have to explain to me what you are talking about." Hokage-sama said inquisitively as he approached the group.

He knew that this would likely happen, considering that it had been his mother that Hokage-sama had sent on the mission rather than him. However there was one thing he was hoping the Third Hokage would agree to before the explanation started.

"I'd be glad to but do you think you could ask these guys to leave first?" He asked as politely as possible, "I have no doubt you'll want to keep what I have to say a secret and I do not know these guys well enough to know if they can keep quiet about this."

"I can assure you that Gai and his team have my full confidence. Anything that you say here will not be spoken of outside this room without my expressed permission." Third Hokage said before turning to the Jounin leader of the team, "Isn't that right, Gai?"

"Of course, Hokage-sama! You have my word of honor young man that not a word of what you reveal here will be spoken of by me or my students. I promise on my honor!" Gai replied before striking a ridiculous pose, thumb stuck out on one hand and what was probably supposed to be a heroic smile.

_This guy definitely needs to cut back on those corny hero cartoons!_ Xander thought barely being able to keep from rolling his eyes.

"Okay but I'm going to hold you and your students to that." He said as a warning before launching into his report.

He started from the very beginning, the first day he found his mother's forehead protector, focusing only on the most relevant facts since he was sure his entire life story would only bore them. He explained how he had been enlightened about the true nature of Sunnydale thanks to a demon hunter who'd come to town (no sense letting them know about Buffy being the Slayer if he could avoid it) and his decision to take up the fight as well. Fast forward to the Halloween spell, where Ethan Rayne turned everyone into what they dressed up as, including turning him into a Konoha Jounin ninja. He explained how after the spell ended that he had put together who his mother really was and why she was likely in Sunnydale. From there he briefly summarized how he started training himself in secret in order to become a better ninja without doing anything to expose a ninja presence on the Hellmouth. It was about then that his explanation touched the leading edge of a moment in his life he would rather forget but was the main reason he had come to Konoha in the first place.

"It was pretty much business as usual on the Hellmouth until the first week of December, when someone blew up the bucket of bolts car my mom drove. I couldn't come up with any rational reason why someone would try and kill my mom but I knew I had to deal with them before people started digging into her background." He explained while trying to keep himself from stalling to avoid the painful memory to come, "It was two days later while I was combing the likely hideout locations that I managed to find them. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the assassins were ninja from the hidden village of Cloud as well as members of the Order of Teraka."

"Do you know the names of these ninja?" Hokage-sama asked with interest.

"The first was a shriveled up old hag in a suit of armor named Chiyo. Next came an asshole that looked like he should be in a hospital name Taji. The last one was a sadistic muscled bastard name Manzo!" He replied, making it clear that while he hated all three, Manzo was the one he wished he could kill over and over again, "I knew I didn't stand a chance on my own with only some faded memories from Halloween night and what little training I'd managed to do on my own. After managing a diversion, I made tracks for the demon hunter's HQ and managed to borrow a cell phone to call my mom, since I figured she was probably the best chance I had of beating the Cloud ninja.

"It was close, but I managed to make it all the way there without being too badly zapped. Unfortunately my mom hadn't arrived at the HQ yet so it was up to me and the demon hunter to keep the ninja busy." He said sure that his face conveyed how difficult that had been for him and Buffy, "My mom managed to get to the HQ in time and then started to kick some serious butt. Unfortunately there were three ninja to our two, so I guess I should have known something bad would happen sooner or later."

It was then that the part of that night that he wanted so badly to forget or at the very least avoid came to the surface causing him to close his eyes in order to steel himself and relate it to Hokage-sama in a firm voice.

"I had Taji on the ropes and was about to deliver the final blow when Manzo came at me from behind. I think just about everyone thought that he was down for the count after that taijutsu combo my mom nailed him with but I guess he was tougher than he looked." He explained with the images of that night replayed in his mind, "He was coming at me with some kind of electrified arm technique and even as I turned around, I knew I wouldn't be able to evade or block it. I thought I was done for but my mom… she jumped in his path and took the hit for me."

For a moment he could say nothing, too overcome by the images playing across his mind, overcome by emotions only slightly less potent than they were that night. Eventually though he managed to muster enough willpower to soldier on with his report.

"I won't bother you with the details, but suffice to say that both Taji and Manzo got what they deserved. After the funeral and everything, I knew that someone had to report back to Konoha about everything that happened and tie up any loose ends that my mom had left undone. So after some research and tapping a few sources, I managed to find out roughly where the hidden villages were and where I could probably find Konoha." He said, recollecting the various little 'adventures' he had had along the way, "So I packed my things and caught the first flight to China. I had to walk the rest of the way, since you guys don't exactly have an airport or anything nearby. Got into a few fights and picked up Ava along the way but nothing I couldn't handle. The rest Gai and the others can probably put together themselves."

"If all you wanted was directions to Konoha, why didn't you just ask us?" Tenten asked as though it was the most logical thing to do.

"Like you guys would just answer the questions of some guy in a ninja uniform that you'd never seen before! Yeah right!" He replied, implying that it would have been an act of complete stupidity if he had just walked up to them on the road and asked for directions, "Besides, like I explained earlier, the mission my mom was on was top secret. I didn't think that Hokage-sama would like it if I just waltzed up to the front gates and explained everything."

"Indeed. If the mission I sent your mother on was as secret as you describe it to be, than it would have been preferred that its existence be kept a secret." Hokage-sama said with a nod of agreement, "However, and I hope you'll forgive an old man for this, I still cannot place who your mother might have been. Did she tell you her true name?"

"She said her name was Uchiha Jun'ko." He replied and was not disappointed when a light of recognition switched on in the eyes of both Hokage-sama and Gai-sensei.

However he also saw something else there that seemed out of place but he couldn't quite identify it since a second later it was gone. Whatever it was, it left him with a distinctly unpleasant feeling in the pit of his stomach that he knew would get worse when he least expected it.

"Do you have any evidence to support your claim of being the son of Uchiha Jun'ko?" Hokage-sama asked with a face completely devoid of any telling expressions.

"In the right side pocket of my backpack there should be a picture of her and the team of genins she taught. Maybe there's also some kind of identification number or something on this forehead protector too." He replied as they reacted just as he had expected.

The sound of the pocket being opened up filled the air and a moment later Lee walked by to Hokage-sama holding a picture that was the right size and appearance for the one he had mentioned to the man. It took only a moment of inspection before the elderly man seemed to be convinced that it was genuine and therefore also the claim that the young man in front of him really was the son of Uchiha Jun'ko. However with this decision came a sadness and reluctance that the American Uchiha couldn't quite figure out. Fortunately it looked like he was about to be enlightened one way or another by Hokage-sama.

"Sigh I am afraid I have something to tell you Alexander that you will probably not like, but I feel that I should be the one to tell you instead of through someone less objective." Hokage-sama said as though he was about to do something he wasn't entirely certain was the right thing to do, "I never sent your mother on a mission to Sunnydale. In fact, for the past seventeen years, everyone in Konoha believed Uchiha Jun'ko to have died in a fire."

You could have knocked him over with a feather right then.

He had been so certain, right up until the Third Hokage sighed, that his mother had been sent to the Hellmouth as a spy to keep tabs on the demonic and supernatural activity there. It was the only thing he could think of that made any kind of sense and it had been something of a comfort that all the misery he had endured at Tony's hands had been for a good reason. Now his thoughts were once again a collection of questions, concerns and confusion as he scrambled to try and piece together another satisfactory reason why his mother had come to Sunnydale and not stopped Tony when the beatings occurred.

"Furthermore, at the time of her 'death', she was under suspicion of aiding a traitor to Konoha in transporting sensitive documents to the country of lightning with which we were in conflict with at the time. We managed to catch the traitor but when ANBU forces were sent to capture your mother, they arrived to find her home in flames." Hokage-sama explained, not giving any indication as to what he himself believed, "Once the flames had been put out a thorough search of the building and the surrounding area was conducted to either find a body or ascertain if the fire had been used as a diversion so Jun'ko had escaped. No body was ever found but neither was there any evidence that she had fled Konoha. In the end, she was presumed dead and that her remains had been cremated by the fire she had set."

Forget the fuckin' feather!! Right now just looking at him a certain way would probably be enough to knock him on his ass at the moment.

The words of the Third Hokage kept looping through his mind again and again as it tried to come to terms with the idea that instead of an honorable ninja dispatched on a mission of utmost importance, his mother might have been a traitor looking for a place to hide from the hunter-nins. While the memories he had retained from Halloween provided him with bits and pieces of info about the conflict between the country of lightning and the country of fire, it was far from a complete picture of how things were back then. He knew enough though that many families in Konoha had died and that the heir to the Hyuuga leadership had almost been kidnapped during the peace talks. Due to this, relations with the country of lightning were probably strained and no one in Konoha would have a very good opinion of anyone thought to have aided the enemy. From the way Hokage-sama had worded his revelation, it sounded like there had been enough evidence to bring in his mother for questioning as well as a few lesser charges, but not enough for a charge of treason. Most probably had considered it case closed when his mother's house burned down and no body was recovered but his appearance here would definitely stir things up some again. He could just picture walking down the streets while people on both sides gave him accusing glares and angry whispers behind his back. They might even try and petition that his mother's remains be prevented from being placed with the rest of the departed Uchiha clan on the grounds that she didn't deserve it.

_NO! I don't care what these people think or what the __**FUCKIN'**__ evidence says!!_ He thought angrily as his eyes narrowed to reflect that anger, _My mother __**was NOT a traitor!**_

"My mother was no traitor! I want to see this evidence for myself." He said with a tone that was dead serious.

"What you believe is irrelevant. Ninja far better than you would have investigated the matter and if it was their conclusion that your mother aided the traitor then it was so." Neji stated, apparently annoyed at the idea of someone challenging what was to him set in stone, "Besides which, the evidence from that investigation has probably either been lost or destroyed since then."

"Like you know any more about what happened than I do, Ahou-sama! They might've missed something or the evidence they found could have been planted by the real accomplice!" He growled with only the ropes pinning his arms keeping him from kicking Pale Eyes' face in, "Besides which I somehow doubt that someone guilty of treason would let themselves be beat up every other day by a disgusting abusive drunk when they could be the one delivering the beating!"

"Whatever really happened seventeen years ago it has little to do with what is happening right now." Hokage-sama stated, trying to get things back to the matter at hand, "Aside from laying your mother to rest, what is it you want from Konoha Alexander?"

"Look, all I wanted was to lay my mom to rest with her family, do whatever duties she'd left undone before her departure and maybe get some training in." He replied somewhat snappily since he was still pissed at Neji for his cold words, "After that I figured I'd head back home to Sunnydale and help the demon hunter keep tabs on the big bads there and stop the occasional apocalypse."

The Third Hokage seemed to contemplate this response for a while, minutes passed without a word being said by anyone, until finally a look came over Hokage-sama's face that made it clear he had reached a decision.

"Neji, Tenten and Lee will escort Alexander back to the hospital to receive treatment for his injuries. I want guards placed in the immediate area in order to keep the curious or potentially vengeful from getting too close." Hokage-sama ordered in a tone that would tolerate no questions whatsoever, "Gai, you will remain here with me in order to discuss the matter further."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" Gai and his team responded before Ahou-sama tugged on the rope that had been used to drag him through the village indicating it was time to go.

"Easy with the rope Ahou-sama! I got bruised and broken ribs here you know!" He growled before heading for the door.

_The sooner I get to the hospital the better I'll feel, both because I'll probably get some pain meds and because Lord Idiot will find someplace else to be!_ He thought angrily as he heard the door to the office close behind him.

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	6. Old Obligations upheld Here's a new one

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials shown in this fanfic. They are the copyrighted material of their respective creators and associated companies.

Note: To you the readers I ask you to be somewhat forgiving from here on out when it comes to certain inconsistencies in Naruto facts used herein. I will do my best to ensure that it stays as close to Naruto Anime canon as possible but I will tweak a few things here and there in order to make things fit better with the story I have in mind. Things like the ages of certain Naruto characters might be increased or decreased depending on what role each one will have in my story. Hopefully you guys won't flame me too badly for this.

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_**The Office of the Third Hokage, Five Minutes After Xander Left**_

"Things are going to become complicated." The Third Hokage sighed as he leaned back in his chair before turning half towards the office window, "How long did the healers at the hospital say it would take before Xander's injuries healed?"

"They said it would be at least three days before the ribs would be fully repaired and the majority of the bruising goes down. Naturally they want him to stay an extra day for observation but that boy has the Springtime of Youth within him!" Gai replied with enthusiasm and certainty, "In fact I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to sneak out of the hospital a day early!"

"That would be inadvisable, Gai. As I mentioned to Xander, the majority of the village still considers his mother to be a traitor and will likely direct their feelings towards him when his heritage becomes known." Sarutobi said as he got out of his chair and moved closer to the window, "I will assemble the village council to discuss the matter further. With luck I can convince them that we should only release part of the truth to the public, that Xander is the son of a missing Konoha ninja who has found his way back to us to lay his mother to rest. If they inquire about why he is laying Jun'ko to rest in the Uchiha cemetery, we can simply choose a name at random from the missing Uchiha ninja that we do not know the status of. Hopefully that will be enough to satisfy everyone."

"Agreed." Gai said willing to go along with this line of action.

"The real question, though, is what if Jun'ko really was a traitor?" The Hokage mused openly as he puffed on his pipe a bit.

"Hokage-sama!!" Gai exclaimed as though unable to understand how the leader of the village could say such a thing.

"I am not saying I believe she was a traitor, Gai, but for the safety of the village we must consider the possibility that she was and that she might have passed down some of those tendencies to her son." Sarutobi said with a tone of voice that warned Maito Gai not to jump to conclusions, "Somehow we must think of a way to determine his true intentions and nature without him knowing that he is doing so. Only then, when his true nature is revealed completely, can we begin trying to show it to the rest of the village."

For the next few minutes neither of them spoke, but instead they contemplated what method would be appropriate for doing what the Third Hokage has suggested: bringing Xander's true nature out into the open for all to see. It would not be easy since words alone, no matter who the person was who spoke them, would not be enough to convince the village that the son was nothing like they perceived the mother to be. It would need to be significant, something that would allow as many people as possible to see the new Uchiha's true nature at one time, and with that thought Sarutobi hit upon the solution. It was still a little over two weeks away but if he played the situation just right he just might be able to sneak Xander into it.

"I believe I may have thought of a way to show everyone the real Uchiha Xander, Gai, but I will need some time to put things into their proper place." The Third Hokage said with a sneaky smile, "Until then I would appreciate it if you could check up on Xander from time to time just to make sure he doesn't get into any trouble."

"Hai Hokage-sama!" Gai stated and with a bow left the office to attend to his duties.

With the leader of team Gai handled, it was time to begin gathering the information he'd need to put his plan into action. Walking over the wall-length bookshelf on the left side of his office, he pursued the volumes on the shelf that was second from the top before finding the book he was looking through. Taking it down, he returned to his desk and began to pursue what was revealed to be a listing of village genin organized by team. However these were not new genin fresh from the academy like Naruto or Hyuuga Hinata, but rather those that had graduated from the academy three or four years ago but had yet to ascend to the rank of chuunin. It was rare indeed for ninja to remain genin for so long, since the chuunin exam was held on an annual basis, but there were times when 'extenuating circumstances' forced him to hold a genin or two back for their own good. The reasons varied from genin to genin but in this situation such troublemakers might actually be of use to him, since they would prove sufficient to bring out Xander's inner light. Flipping through the various teams whose members were still all genin, he examined each team carefully for the traits he was looking for. It took about twenty minutes but eventually he came upon a team that would suit Xander perfectly and, as he recalled, they were down one member after a C-class mission went poorly. True, that member would recover eventually, but not in time for what was quickly approaching. Thus there was a hole in the team that needed to be filled and a new ninja that needed a place where he could flourish, so the situation looked to be perfect.

_Still this will mean I will need to pick a new examiner for the second phase but Xander might be just the thing these two need to get on with their lives._ Sarutobi thought to himself as he looked at the pictures of Inuzuka Hana and Mishima Ayeka.

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_**Konoha Hospital, One Day Later, Xander's Room**_

_Those medical jutsus are pretty handy techniques!_ Xander thought as he mentally compared the level of pain and discomfort he felt before the doctor used the move on him with how he was feeling now, _Definitely something I'm gonna have to ask about learning before I head back to Sunnydale._

Roughly a day had passed since his meeting with Hokage-sama and, since arriving at the hospital, this had been the first time he'd had a medical jutsu used on him. Until a few minutes prior, the only medical care he'd received had been wrappings for his ribs to keep them from getting jostled or moved around a lot along with a few painkiller pills. Those things had definitely taken the edge off of the pain but it'd still been a pain in the ass (along with other places) trying to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in. Still, he remained true to his nature and managed to get his minimum ten hours of sleep in while still managing to wake up in time to get something done. While it was true that the doctors (obsessive compulsives were what they were) wouldn't let him leave his bed much less the hospital unless it was to go to the bathroom, he was still able to get some thinking done. Usually it was something he tried to shy away from since it tended to give him a headache, but in this case there were some important decisions to make and that meant thinking on them hard.

The first, he supposed, the most important one, was how he was going to lay his mother to rest in the Uchiha graveyard, given the reputation his mom had among the people of Konoha. He still refused to believe that his mom had knowingly betrayed the people of her village or betrayed them in any other way for that matter, but what he believed and Konoha believed were two completely different things. It was also a safe bet that Hokage-sama would want to keep any potential uproar to a bare minimum and that would mean keeping who his mother was a secret for the time being. It pissed him off to have to keep such a thing a secret, especially when his soul was screaming at him to yell at the top of his lungs that Uchiha Jun'ko was not a traitor. Doing so would only cause him and the rest of the Uchiha clan problems and probably make it difficult to lay her to rest in the Uchiha clan cemetery, so until he found evidence that proved his mother was innocent of treason, he'd keep his mouth shut no matter how much it might hurt him to do so.

The next issue to resolve was to meet with the Uchiha clan and attempt to determine what his place with them would be. While he had no intention of abandoning Buffy and the others back in Sunnydale, he was a member of the Uchiha clan and that meant he had certain obligations to fulfill. His memories from Halloween didn't exactly enlighten him as to what those responsibilities and obligations might be, but he figured it probably meant paperwork, chores and maybe a mission or two that has to be done by Jun'ko's closest living blood relative. That, he figured, would take a month or so to finish, after which he would approach Hokage-sama about getting a tutor of sorts for jutsus as a way of making sure he was actually good enough to be called a ninja.

_After all, just because I can execute some pretty impressive jutsu and managed to beat some rogue cloud ninja doesn't make me a Konoha ninja,_ Xander thought to himself as he tried to find something to focus on visually. _Until I'm officially sworn in and everything, I'll still just be a nobody with a few cool tricks._

If he could manage to get an official Konoha forehead protector of his own, it would be a big step for him and would definitely be an accomplishment in his eyes. After all, back home Willow was a genius and Buffy had her calling to make her special but he didn't really have anything up until last Halloween. Now he was determined to make being a ninja his thing but, in order to become one, he had to become certified as one by the people in charge in Konoha. They'd probably give him the usual oral, written and field tests along with a few others in order to make sure he was qualified but considering what he'd managed in the past, he had no doubt he'd manage to pass them.

Of course all of that would happen after he laid his mother to rest in the Uchiha clan graveyard and it would happen even if he had to produce ten shadow clones to run interference while he did it. He would not be denied that after coming all the way here and if someone tried to stop him, he'd make that person wish they'd never been born. His mother might have made quite a few mistakes in her life but she still deserved a proper burial among family and he would do all he could to make sure that happened.

He was knocked out of these thoughts by the sound of the door to his room opening and that struck him as a little odd since the only people who'd come to see him since he got here were hospital personnel. When the door opened fully, he was shown a young girl, maybe twelve or thirteen years old, with dark black-purple hair and the tell-tale eyes that made it clear she was a member of the Hyuga clan. This made him put some guards up since the only other member of the Hyuga clan that he'd encountered was a serious asshole. However that idea only lasted a few seconds because what he saw stepping shyly towards him with a vase full of flowers in her hands was a shy young girl who looked like she'd be reduced to a stuttering mess with only a few harsh words. In this way she reminded him of Willow when his bestest bud was that age and the two of them just started high school along with Jesse. In the company of either him or Jesse, she was fine and able to speak her mind without trouble but put her in the presence of either strangers or authority figures and she'd be all nervous, stuttering, shy girl. The impression he got from the Hyuga girl was much the same and to him that meant that the young lady probably lacked the same thing Willow had: confidence. Right then and there he decided that while he was here he'd do his best to try and get her to come out of her shell a little.

"H-hello. My name is Hyuga Hinata and I thought you might l-like some flowers to cheer you up." She said quietly as though she'd never raised her voice after she set down the vase on his bedside table.

"Thanks. My name's Xander." He said holding out his hand for a handshake, "Nice to meet you, Hinata."

For a moment the girl looked like she wouldn't take his hand but tentatively she did but only long enough for one shake before she withdrew her hand and held it to her chest in a genuine example of shyness. It was clear that she was nervous speaking with him and would probably bolt if something wasn't done to break the tension soon. So he decided to do so in his own unique style.

"You ever wonder what they were thinking when they chose the color for these rooms?" He asked in the same way someone would comment on the weather, "I mean, why did they have to paint it the color of barf? I suppose they might have chosen this color, thinking it'd make people think of Twinkies but they got the shade of yellow all wrong. It's supposed to be a more golden yellow rather than banana paste yellow. What do you think?"

The Hyuga girl was clearly thrown by his question if the look on her face was any indication but eventually she recovered enough to think about what he said a bit better. Indecision was the first to show itself since she probably didn't know whether he was being serious with his question or was trying to make a joke. Deciding to give her a hint on which way she should lean, he put on his best 'that was funny' smile but restrained himself from laughing or even giggling since she might misinterpret it thinking he was laughing at her. Seeing a small smile appear on her face relieved the tension he was feeling during the space between hoping his hint worked and knowing it worked.

"I-I suppose it could be a-a bit m-more cheerful." She replied with the quiet smile on her face.

"Definitely. So, do you make it a habit of visiting all the new patients or am I somehow special?" Xander asked, since he was genuinely curious about why she'd come into his room bearing flowers.

"I-I-I v-volunteer h-here once a w-week t-to try and make the p-patients happier." She replied, looking like she had more than one idea about how his words could be interpreted, "I h-have one other patient to visit before I h-have to meet up with my team."

_She's probably a new genin that graduated a little while ago._ He thought to himself as he watched her regain some of her composure, _I wonder who her teammates are?_

"Well then I won't hold you up any longer Hinata." He said with his trademarked lopsided smile, "I'm sure you got some pretty important training to do with your team. Thanks for the flowers."

"You're welcome." Hinata said before performing a formal bow and left the room at a pace a little above a casual walk.

_Definitely gotta see about getting her out of her shell before I head back to Sunnydale._ He thought as he looked at the flowers in the vase trying to match them against what he knew about flowers.

Needless to say it took him five minutes to look for something else to occupy his time.

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_**Office of the Hokage of Konoha, Later That Day**_

"You sent for me, Hokage-sama?" Mitarashi Anko asked after entering the office of the village leader.

Contrary to the way that most people wish to avoid being called to the Hokage's office, Anko actually was somewhat relieved because it would give her something of a break from genin under her care. While there were moments when she was extremely proud of them, ever since Wufei caught that virus during their mission to Tea country, Ayeka and Hana had been even snippier than usual towards each other. While the two young ladies each gave a reason for their behavior, she knew it was more than what they claimed it was. In truth she suspected that they were upset that the chuunin selection exams would begin soon and, without Wufei, they would be unable to qualify. The rules of the exam required that the teams entered must be three in number and all belong to the same team. As such, unless something extraordinary happened, it looked like Hana, Ayeka and Wufei would be held back again until the next chuunin exam was held. Needless to say neither of the two young ladies were happy with the idea that they'd be stuck as genin for another year. It was something of a joke among the other genin and chuunin that the only way that Mishima Ayeka, Yuy Wufei and Inuzuka Hana would become chuunin would be if every other ninja was dead except Hokage-sama. While both ladies accused the other of being the reason why they weren't chuunin yet, the fact of the matter was that every member of her team had faults that held them back. For Ayeka it was her vanity and her desire to become a member of the Konoha nobility, since it often made her refuse to do anything that might tarnish her good looks or reputation. For Hana it was the simple matter that while she was quite skilled at taking care of the animals of Konoha, she had a nasty habit of losing her temper around people. More than once the girl had wound up in a cell because she beat the crap out of some dumbass for saying something careless in her presence. Wufei's problem was that he didn't care whether or not he became a chuunin or not and, as a result only, put forth enough effort to stay a genin. Each year it was a combination of two of these three issues that caused her team to be passed over for consideration when it came to selecting teams to represent Konoha.

_If only those three would get their acts together I know they could pass the exams in no time at all!_ She thought to herself as she looked to the Hokage in an effort to deduce his reason for summoning her by reading his expression.

The look on the face of Sarutobi-sama was one of professionalism but she could see a sparkle in his eye that for some reason made her wary. She was certain that what she was seeing meant that the elderly man wanted to talk business with her rather than some kind of casual conversation but the sparkle hinted at something more. Had either Hana or Ayeka done something to get into trouble? No. She had been watching them like a hawk ever since they got Wufei to the hospital for treatment and had carefully intercepted them each time it looked like one of the young ladies would start causing problems. So what could it be?

"How is Wufei fairing?" Hokage-sama asked with casual interest.

"The medical-nin do not think it is too serious but he will require strict bed rest for at least a month before he will be able to return to active duty." She replied, leaving out the fact that there might be some permanent after effects to the virus that would reduce Wufei's effectiveness in battle.

"That's good to hear. However it means he will miss out on what I have planned for your team." Hokage-sama said with half the true disappointment that she expected him to express.

"Planned? You mean the chuunin exam in two weeks?" Anko asked as the situation began to come into focus a bit.

"Yes. Originally I had planned on appointing you as one of the special examiners for the exam but a recent development has prompted me to reconsider permitting your team to be allowed to participate in the exam." Sarutobi replied with a slight smile as he looked her right in the eye, "You may have heard about it: a young man about sixteen years old being escorted to my office by team Gai."

"I had heard about an unknown ninja prisoner being escorted here but I just assumed it was some shinobi from either the land of Earth or lightning attempting to infiltrate Konoha." She said as she recalled the chit-chat she'd overheard walking through town.

"While the young man did admit that he was trying to sneak into Konoha undetected he was not from either Earth or Lightning." Hokage-sama said like a storyteller about to reveal an interesting plot twist, "In fact I have a strong reason to believe his homeland is Konoha."

"What? If that was the case then why was he tied up and being escorted to you like a prisoner?" Anko asked, not sure how to handle this turn of events.

"He was brought to me like that because up until we spoke, neither I nor Team Gai knew he was connected to Konoha. Up until about six or so months ago, the boy didn't know where he really came from or that he was the son of a ninja of Konoha." Sarutobi replied with his smile growing just a little bit, "It was only through an act of chance that he was given the piece of the puzzle he needed in order to discover the truth. That discovery of the truth has brought him here to this village."

"Who is he then?" She asked with focused attention at the discovery she'd just been let in on.

"His name his Uchiha Xander." Hokage-sama replied with a smile that clearly implied that he had purposefully building up her interest just to drop this bomb of a revelation on her.

"Uchiha!? But I thought that Sasuke and Itachi were the only two members of that clan still alive!" Anko exclaimed in surprise at there being one more member of that clan of tragedy alive in the world.

"Xander's mother left the village prior to the clan massacre five years ago and, for the past seventeen years, raised him in America with no knowledge of where she came from or what she was." Sarutobi-sama explained as his face took on a slightly graver look, "Through chance he was able to discover the truth but sadly it was through the death of his mother that he decided to come to Konoha in order to lay her to rest beside her family."

It was quite the revelation but she knew that this alone couldn't be why Hokage-sama asked her to come here. She had her suspicions as to what the leader of Konoha had planned but wanted to hear him say it so as not to misinterpret anything.

"So what does Xander have to do with what you have planned for my team?" She asked as clearly and professionally as possible.

"While Xander's claim to being a member of the Uchiha clan has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, there is still some doubt amongst the elders as to his intentions. Therefore I have decided to assign him to your team as Wufei's replacement and recommended that the team be allowed to participate in the chuunin exam." Hokage-sama stated firmly letting Anko know how firm he was on this decision, "While I understand that it will be difficult to accommodate this new member, I believe that the time has come for both Ayeka and Hana to move on. I have already discussed the matter with Wufei and he has consented to giving up his place on your team to Xander."

"But Hokage-sama! My team has been learning to work with one another for the past three years straight!" She exclaimed as her mind came up with scenario after scenario centered around how this could cause problems for her as well as everyone else, "Besides which participating in the chuunin exam requires a level of teamwork that can't just be created in so short a period of time. If I had a month or two to get them into shape with Xander, I might be able to make them ready for the exam but I don't have a month, do I?"

"No you do not. I have already given orders for messenger birds to be sent to the other villages in each country about the date that the chuunin exam will start." Hokage-sama replied in tone probably trying to sound all sorry for doing this to her, "You have two weeks starting today to get Xander incorporated into your team and ready for the chuunin exam."

"I don't suppose there's any way out of this is there?" Anko asked rhetorically since the orders of the Third Hokage were pretty much law in Konoha.

"There is one. Xander is due to be released from the hospital in about two days. If you want, you can then test him to see if his skill and knowledge of jutsus are at an acceptable level." Sarutobi replied with complete honesty, "If you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he does not have the requisite level of skill or ability to team up with Hana and Ayeka for the chuunin exam, then I will allow you to withdraw from the exam. However, if he does manage to pass muster, then you're in the exam. Is this acceptable?"

"It's acceptable." She replied confident that no lost shinobi, even an Uchiha, would be as good as someone born and raised in Konoha.

"Then I suggest you go and inform the two girls of the change and get them ready." Hokage-sama stated before swiveling his chair away from her, "The clock is ticking and you'll need all the time you can get to have then ready for the exam.

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" She said before formally bowing to the leader of her village and then walking out of the office.

It was about then that she imagined what Ayeka and Hana's reactions would be to this change causing her to immediately postpone informing them until tomorrow. At least by doing that she'd manage to get a good night of sleep in before walking into the middle of that shit storm.

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_**The Next Day, Just After Lunch, The Hospital, Xander's Room**_

_Note to self: when Twinkies are not an option then ramen is a good second choice!_ Xander thought as he savored the aftertaste from his bowl of ramen that he'd had for lunch.

It had been about an hour before, just as the doctor had completed the second round of medical jutsus designed to repair his chakra circulatory system and ribs, that a nurse had come in to ask him what he'd like for lunch. She'd handed him a menu of what he could have but while some choices he recognized from the memories he'd inherited from Halloween, most were completely alien to him. In the end he'd asked the nurse if there was anything in particular that she recommended and she had pointed out the ramen, saying it came from one of the most popular ramen restaurants in Konoha. It was called Ichiraku Ramen and he had to admit that if the bowl he just had was typical of the food served there then he had definitely found his favorite hang out while in the village. Putting the bowl on the bedside table, close to the vase of flowers that Hinata had brought him, he decided to resume what he had been doing since he first got put in the bed he was in: seal speed training. It was the only real training he could do while in the hospital because everything else either required more room or would get him in trouble with the hospital staff in an instant. Still it would be beneficial since a ninja's ability to form seal combinations quickly yet correctly made a huge difference in their success rate. All it took was a ninja completing the necessary hand seal combination half a second earlier than their opponent to turn the battle in their favor. Therefore he had spent every spare moment he had attempting to reduce the time it took in order to perform the more complex or long hand seal combinations. He personally thought he was making progress but a person's own point of view was always subjective, so he'd have to wait until he was actually facing off against another ninja before he'd know for sure.

Once he got out of the hospital and concluded his business of laying his mother to rest in the Uchiha cemetery, he'd visit the current head of the Uchiha clan to formally become part of the clan. It'd be difficult, seeing as how they were probably no different from the rest of the village in how they saw Uchiha Jun'ko, but nevertheless they were his family now as far as blood relations go so he'd do it nonetheless. Assuming they looked past who his mother was and saw fit to give him the benefit of a doubt, he'd do what they asked of him for a few weeks but then he'd have to have a serious talk with the leader of the clan. While he did not want to look like someone who wanted to be an Uchiha in name only, he would definitely have to return to Sunnydale at the beginning of the new school year. Buffy and the others would need his help in keeping the Hellmouth under control and to deal with the end of the year apocalypse, therefore he would explain to the clan head the dangers of the Hellmouth and why it had to be placed under close supervision. He would also give the leader of the Uchiha clan the same rendition of events he gave the Hokage in that he would edit out or vague up the parts involving the Slayer and who precisely his friends were. Buffy and Giles' names he would leave out completely, he would use only nicknames, but for Willow and the others he would use their first names only. Hopefully that would be enough to keep them safe from any unpleasantness that might occur during his stay here. Most likely there'd be people here that would get it into their heads to hurt the son of the one that hurt them by going after the gang back in Sunnydale. Hopefully the leader of the clan would be satisfied with that and give him permission to return to Sunnydale to guard the Hellmouth.

_If not I'll probably have to go to Hokage-sama himself to try and persuade him to post a ninja there to keep tabs on things,_ he thought as he tried to increase the speed with which he could perform the more complex fire element ninjutsus.

Just as he was finishing the seal combination for the Katon Karyuu Endan jutsu, the door opened and in came the Third Hokage. While the man was definitely trying to keep a friendly look on his face, Xander could tell that the village leader was here to talk about something important.

"I'd advise you to wait a year or so before trying that particular technique, Xander." Sarutobi said with some amusement as the Fire Dragon Flame Blast technique was one of his favorite jutsu, "It takes quite a bit of chakra in order to perform it correctly. You might be able to execute it if you used all your chakra but you'd be unable to continue fighting afterwards."

"I know but one day I plan on being able to use it like most people use the shadow clone technique." He replied deciding to put his speed seal training on hold for the time being, "After all, if my Halloween memories are right, then the Uchiha clan specializes in fire techniques so it only makes sense that I learn how to do them all. Maybe once I'm out of the hospital one of my relatives can give me a few pointers on it."

The look that came over Hokage-sama's face at his words instantly caused a cold stone of dread to drop into his stomach. It was a look he imagined he'd been wearing when he'd gone to tell Jesse's parents about what happened to him after the Scooby gang put a stop to the Harvest. He had been so overwhelmed with sorrow and guilt at what had happened that he'd felt obligated to tell them himself that their son would not be coming home to them. He'd even been ready to let them in on the truth about the 'how' of it all even if they would likely call him a crazy man and perhaps even suspect that he'd had something to do with Jesse's disappearance. At the time he didn't care what they chose to do to him because as far as he was concerned he deserved every bit of pain they could dish out. However he'd arrived at the McNally home to find a police car out front and Detective Stein at the front door with Mr. and Mrs. McNally. Both of them were crying their eyes out in grief. At that sight he had frozen and in a moment of cowardice he'd turned tail and ran thankful that someone else had done the job of conveying the bad news. Jesse's parents had made several attempts to contact him so they could all join together in their time of grief but he'd evaded each attempt only showing up at his best bud's funeral. They'd walked up to him and he'd attempt to say something to explain why he'd been avoiding them but only three words got put together before he broke down and began to cry. They'd probably assumed that he'd been so overcome with his own grief that the thought of close contact with them would only make things worse.

He'd kept the truth a secret ever since.

_Judging from the look on Hokage-sama's face I don't think he has good news to pass on. _Xander thought as he hoped that his ability to read people's expressions was way off the mark.

"I'm afraid I have some rather bad news for your, Xander. With the exception of two members, besides yourself that is, the Uchiha clan is no more." Hokage-sama stated with a look that made it clear that every word he spoke was coated in remorse as well as regret.

"WHAT!? How?! The Uchiha clan is… was one of the most powerful clans in all of Konoha, if not all of the hidden villages in this region! How could they have been wiped out?!" He exclaimed in both shock and sadness as his plan to return his mother's remains to her family fell apart.

"They were betrayed by one of their own. His name was Uchiha Itachi and in the space of one night he managed to kill all but one of his fellow clan members." Hokage-sama said in a way that made it clear he was having difficulty in deciding on how much of the truth he should divulge, "He was something of a prodigy with skills far beyond what could be considered normal for a shinobi. At age ten he managed to rise to the rank of chuunin, a full four years earlier than most ninja, and by age thirteen he was a Captain in the ANBU. Everyone was shocked to learn that he was responsible for the massacre of his own clan."

Given his almost paralyzing shock at the moment, Xander could easily empathize with what the other members of the village must have felt at the time. More than that, he realized that Fate had once again conspired to rob him of the family he had come here desiring to find. Ever since he learned that there might be another family for him to join out there, he had dreamed optimistic dreams of finally becoming a part of a loving group rather than the abusive one he'd grown up in. Now he found that dream shattered by none other than one of his own relatives. Xander's mind could not comprehend how someone could massacre such a large number of people much less his own family. Just the thought of killing either Buffy or any of the other members of his surrogate family in Sunnydale caused a serious case of 'this does not compute' in his mind. It was amidst this inconceivable revelation that he recalled the Hokage saying that there was one more member aside from Itachi.

"You said that aside from me there were two survivors of the massacre. I know that one of them is that bastard Itachi but who is the other?" He asked in the hopes that he might be able to meet this other Uchiha.

"Uchiha Sasuke. He is Itachi's younger brother and, if I recall correctly, your cousin. For reasons that cannot be discerned at the moment, Itachi chose to spare his brother and soon after fled the village." The Third Hokage replied as his voice never lost its troubled edge as he sighed, "He took it rather hard and has been training like a man possessed to catch up to his brother in order to avenge his clan. While his goal has served to make him the number one rookie of his class, it has also chained him to his past. All his thoughts are of revenge and acquiring the means to obtain it."

"Can't say I blame him! If my older brother wiped out my entire family, I'd be gunning for revenge as well!" Xander said as his own desire to deliver some payback to the man that had destroyed his loving future began to emerge.

"His hatred towards his brother might be justified but consider what he is throwing away to get his revenge. Up until recently he has had no friends and only when placed on a team with two others are the ties of friendship beginning to take hold." Hokage stated, trying to prevent another Uchiha from going down the dark path of vengeance, "If things go the way I hope, they will the comfort and strength of those bonds will steer him away from his quest for vengeance. While it may sound appealing, vengeance is a hollow pursuit that all too often winds up costing the one seeking it everything a person should value in their life. Do you really think it would be worth killing one man if it wound up costing you your family, your friends and your home in order to obtain it?"

"I… uh…um." He said in response as the words of the Hokage reached his soul.

Remembering his own feelings of revenge after the loss of Jesse, he could only imagine how Sasuke must have reacted to losing his entire family. With him it had pretty much cemented his desire to fight the fight against the darkness with Buffy but unlike Sasuke he hadn't had a specific target for his vengeance. He didn't know which vampire it had been that had turned Jesse, though he suspected that it was probably the Master or one of his lieutenants. Because of that, he had just carpet blamed the entire vampire species for Jesse's death and was dedicated to killing every vampire he could as vengeance for his brother of the spirit. For Sasuke, however, things were different; he knew exactly whom was responsible, right down to an appearance and a name and that gave him a focus that Xander hadn't had. More than that, he had only lost one person whereas Sasuke had lost his entire family, which probably numbered fifty or more with those just being the ones the survivor actually knew. To be tormented by the deaths of over fifty people and to know that your own brother was responsible must have scarred Sasuke pretty severely. Taking Hokage-sama's words into account, he had to admit that while revenge might be sweet it was not worth losing everything else in order to attain it. After all once vengeance is all said and done then what would a person have left to live for if he or she had already given everything else up.

"In any case, the reason why I have come here is to inform you of what has been done since we met in my office. Later that day I met with the village council and elaborated on who you were and why you were here." Sarutobi said in an official tone of voice, "I informed them that you were the son of a missing ninja with ties to the Uchiha clan. I told them that you were here to lay your mother to rest and then attend to some business here in Konoha. For the most part they accepted the information."

"For the most part?" Xander asked knowing all to well when an adult was concealing facts through omission.

"You have to understand that unknown ninja entering the village without any sort of identity papers or previous contact with Konoha must be treated with suspicion. While it is true that this nation is currently at peace with the other major powers in the region, it is a tentative peace." Hokage-sama replied seriously, since the situation required honesty, "Therefore they have asked me to look for evidence to support what you claim your intentions are towards Konoha. As a result, I have decided that once you are released from the hospital tomorrow and after you have lain your mother to rest, you will be placed with a team of genins so that you all may participate in the upcoming chuunin exam."

"Chuunin exam!? But I just got here!" Xander exclaimed, wondering where the hell the Third Hokage had gotten this idea.

"I understand that, but I felt that actions would speak louder than words to the council members where your intentions were concerned. By seeing how you perform during the exam, they will be able to see that you are no threat to this village but rather perhaps an asset." Sarutobi explained with an amused grin in his face, "When the exam is over, the findings will be presented to the council and then a final decision will be made regarding your status in the Fire Nation."

"I suppose that makes sense." Xander said, understanding but not liking what Hokage-sama was telling him, "Still, it's not exactly the welcome I was expecting either."

"Heheheheh, no, I suppose it wasn't! Still I have every confidence that when it's all over with they'll look back at their suspicions and see how absurd they were." The Third Hokage said with a slight chuckle of amusement, "I've already selected a team for you to participate in the exam with and as luck would have it one of their members is ill and won't be able to join his friends in the exam. That will help make sure that three of you will meet the three-person requirement instead of forcing an exception to be made."

"Who exactly will I be teaming up with?" Xander asked, since it would probably be a good thing to get as much advance info as possible beforehand.

"Your team leader will be Mitarashi Anko. She is a special Jounin who, up until recently, was slotted to be a special examiner for the exam. She is quite good at ranged combat but is no slouch in close quarters combat." Hokage-sama replied as he recalled the necessary facts, "Next is Inuzuka Hana, who specializes in veterinary medicine but don't let that fool you into thinking she can't fight. I've had to read many a report of how she dealt with certain genin and chuunin who got a little too 'friendly' with her. Last but certainly not least, especially if she has anything to say about it, is Mishima Ayeka, who is the team's ranged combat specialist. She doesn't come from a strong noble clan but she definitely doesn't plan on letting things stay that way. You'll likely have to be a bit tolerant with her since she'll likely pursue you with a vengeance once she finds out which clan you belong to."

"Great! One teammate will probably put me back into this hospital bed and the other just wants to get me in bed so she can raise her social standing." He muttered as he imagined having to tip-toe around a member of the Inuzuka clan and practice his escape & evade skills at random each day.

"I don't think it'll be quite that bad, Xander, but with those two at your side and Anko in command, I'd say your stay here will definitely be interesting." Hokage-sama said to reign in any worst case scenarios that were probably running through Xander's head.

"Yeah, well, the phrase 'interesting times' comes to mind for me, Hokage-sama, and not in a good way," he said, remembering the kind of luck he tended to have regardless of where he was relative to the Hellmouth.

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_**The Next Day, Near the Front Entrance of the Hospital, Mid-Morning**_

"Well, Xander-kun, it looks like your ribs are pretty much healed and looks like the swelling is three quarters of the way down. While you should be able to do some light training, I would advise you to not strain yourself for the next two days just to be on the safe side," Doctor Yamato stated as he walked alongside the young man he'd been treating.

"I'll do my best, doc, but I'm sure you know as well as I do that the life of a ninja doesn't always follow the safest path," Xander said, trying to hedge his bets by giving a reply that was not quite following the doc's orders but not defying them either.

"Hmph! While that may be true, you're just a genin, so I don't expect you'll get into too much trouble unless you actually go looking for it. If that happens just do what any sensible person would do and run in the other direction," Doc Yamato said with his tone clearly stating 'I know what you are trying to do'.

"I'll try," Xander said, deciding that anything more than that would just aggravate the doctor further.

"Ah, don't listen to that old worry wart, Xander-san! He always makes things out to be ten times worse than they are," came a young woman's voice that obviously believed every word she was saying.

Looking in the direction of the voice he was immediately struck dumb both by the woman's innate beauty but also because of the way that, aside from her jacket, her outfit clung to every curve.

_And __**MAN**__ does she have __**CURVES**_ He thought to himself before his self-preservation instincts kicked in and he wiped the slack jawed look off of his face.

Still it was difficult to keep his teenage hormones from reasserting their hold over him, given that the woman was wearing what looked like a wire mesh wetsuit, a mini-mini skirt, shin guards and standard ninja sandals. Even so, he did his best since Hokage-sama said she was a special Jounin and that meant pain by the boat-full if he pissed her off.

"Better to assume the worst and deal with it then believe a ninja's bravado and ego," Yamato said making his stance clear on the matter. "As he has been assigned to your team, Anko-san, I'll let you take it from here. Just be careful not to push him too hard, too soon. Most of the major damage might be gone but it could easily come back if some stress is put on it."

"Hai, hai! I'll make sure that he doesn't scrape his knee or anything," Anko said, making it clear she was only saying it to get the doctor on his way sooner.

Grumbling all the way about 'reckless jounin', Doctor Yamato walked away and caused both him and the purple-haired woman to chuckle in amusement. However he knew that this situation did not bode well for him since not only would she make it difficult to focus on his training, but it would likely also mean the inevitable failure of his 'tact filter' resulting in a seriously painful bit of payback.

_Guess I'll get to raise my pain threshold whether I want to or not!_ He thought as he walked up to her until he was two feet in front of her.

"So you're Uchiha Xander, eh?" Anko asked rhetorically as she began to circle him like a shark does to its prey, "Not too bad, though it's clear you haven't really gone through any serious training. Still, I think I can whip you into shape in time for the chuunin exam."

At the mention of the word 'whip' his mind instantly produced an image of him hanging from chains attached to the ceiling with Anko in a dominatrix outfit with whip in hand. For a moment he experienced an ice age sized brain freeze that kept him from saying anything but thankfully a swat he received to the back of his head got his grey matter working again.

"You were just imagining something naughty, were you?" She asked in a tone he knew all too well as the voice a woman used when she's about to tear into a man.

"NO! I…ah…I mean… of course…not?" Xander replied, not knowing a single way he could get out of trouble without being pulled in deep instead.

"Hahahahahaha! Don't worry about it, gaki! Just don't let it happen again," Anko said with her mood doing a complete one eighty from stern and angry to playful and friendly. "Now I believe that you have something important that needs to be done?"

Adjusting the strap on his backpack, which had been returned to him yesterday, he replied, "Yes. Let's get going."

Walking through the streets of Konoha he could tell that people still remembered him from when Ahou-sama and his team paraded him down the main street all tied up. His appearance hadn't changed all that much aside from getting rid of the flak jacket and going around with only the sandals, pants, black bodysuit, gloves and mask. He had been stripped of his weapons though and he hadn't seen Ava since he'd been dropped off at the hospital by that Bruce Lee wannabe and his team, but he'd been told that he'd get both back once he left the hospital. However first there was a duty he had to perform before he could move on towards his future.

He had to lay his mother to rest just like he had promised.

Asking Anko for directions every now and then, he eventually made it to the sector of Konoha reserved for the Uchiha clan. Looking at it, he could see at once what it must have looked like back in its prime but he could also see how it had fallen into disrepair thanks to that bastard Itachi. Where there should have been shop owners plying their wares to the people of the village, there was nothing but boarded up shops with a thick layer of dirt on them. Where there should have been kids running around playing ninja, all he could see were empty streets in need of maintenance. Most of all, though, where there should have been family welcoming one of their number home there was only the cold sterile feeling of death. The Uchiha district was no longer a place for the living but rather a memorial to a clan that had been ruthlessly betrayed by one of its own. It pissed him off to know that a proud clan, his clan, had been reduced to a mere whisper of its former self. Right then and there he promised that he'd do whatever he could with Uchiha Sasuke to restore the clan to its former standing in not only Konoha, but also all the hidden villages.

It took about twelve minutes to reach the Uchiha clan's private cemetery but when he did get there, he had to stop and look at the sheer number of gravestones that there were. While some of them had obviously been there a long time, it was not difficult to pick out the ones less than half a decade old. Once more he was confronted by the inability to comprehend how someone could commit such an unthinkable act like killing one's own family. Shaking his head, Xander entered the cemetery proper and recalled the directions that Hokage-sama had given him as to where his mother's parents were buried. He knew this would probably raise an eyebrow with Anko but it just didn't seem right to just bury her anywhere in the cemetery. She deserved to have her remains rest alongside those that brought her into the world in the first place.

Standing in front of the graves of Uchiha Heero and Uchiha Sango, he tried to imagine what they looked like when they were alive. He tried to imagine what his mother's own childhood had been like growing up in Konoha might have been like. Most of all, though, he wondered what his own life might have been like had he been raised here instead of in Sunnydale.

It probably would have been cut short to about when the Master temporarily killed Buffy at the end of her first year, since the Hellmouth would have opened and demons would have overrun the Earth, reaching even Konoha. After all, he was the one who forced Deadboy down at cross-point to lead him to the Master's lair and, if not for that, Buffy wouldn't have been revived in time to stop the Master from opening the Hellmouth. So, all in all, while he wouldn't have minded growing up in Konoha, it worked out for the best fate-wise for everyone since it meant the Hellmouth didn't open nor was he among those killed by Itachi five years ago. Still the mind was ever-filled with possible pasts and futures with each one appearing, disappearing and then reappearing at random. It was better to just take things one at a time and make your decisions as they're presented to you.

Getting down onto his knees, he began to use his hands to dig a hole in the ground between the graves of Heero and Sango and didn't stop until was impossible to dig deeper using just his hands. Content with the current depth, Xander slid his backpack off his shoulders and, with a few quick movements, opened up the top to reveal the funerary urn holding his mother's remains. With the utmost care he removed it and then placed it into the hole he dug before taking the dirt he'd displaced and pushing it on top of the container. With that act he accomplished what he set out to do, what he had promised his mother he would do moments after her death, and so with a silent prayer he rose to his feet.

_It's done Mom. You're home._ He thought before he turned to Anko and said, "Well, I guess it's time to meet my teammates. Shall we go?"


	7. Running the Gauntlet Konoha Style

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material that shows up in this fanfic. They are the rightful property of their creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this at all. I write merely for my enjoyment and for the benefit of my loyal readers.

Note: A big shout out to my beta reader AnimeRonin for helping me with the fight scenes in this chapter among other things. If you want to read some quality fanfic give his stories a try.

Note 2: This is a mini-challenge to all those who love this fanfic. While I would love to explore this angle myself I am understandably busy as it is so I decided to put this out to whoever wanted to give this a try. The challenge is to write a short, a drabble or if you're really ambitious a full fledged fanfic based on the following question:

_What would Xander's life have been like had his mother never been forced to leave Konoha?_

You can take this idea in any direction you want pretty much but you must take into account the facts I've revealed so far about Uchiha Jun'ko no matter what. While some bending of the facts are permissible (perhaps even required in some areas) I'd appreciate it if you all could stay as close to what I've laid out as possible.

So write a drabble or short showing how Xander would have met his end during Itachi's massacre of the Uchiha clan. Maybe have Xander go psycho with Itachi and leave the village as killer's subordinate. Or if you want something a little brighter take a scene from Naruto canon and place Xander in it while giving it all your own unique spin. It's up to you.

Now on with the show!!

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_**Twenty Minutes Later, Meeting Room, Ninja Academy**_

"Where the hell is Anko-sensei?" Hana growled as she continued to pet her three partners, the Haimaru Sankyodai.

"She said something about needing to pick someone up at the Hospital," replied Ayeka from the chair she'd been in ever since she arrived in the room. "Do you think Wufei somehow got better quicker?"

"HA! From the way that that lazy ass shinobi was whining on the way home, I don't think so," Hana said as Ishina rubbed her head up against her leg, looking for more attention. "More likely she's trying to think up some lame ass way of making us work together better."

"It's not my fault you insist on rolling through the dirt all the time to accomplish a mission!" Ayeka snapped as she looked up from where she was performing maintenance on her nails, "With all the dirt and trash you wind up getting on you, it's a wonder that your dogs can bear to be around you."

"Well at least I'm not afraid of getting a little dirty to claim victory! Hell! All some enemy ninja needs to do to defeat you is throw some dirt on you!" Hana growled back at her teammate as her animal partners likewise glared at the blonde girl, "That's probably why we're still genins **three years** after graduating from this academy! Do you have any idea how fuckin' embarrassing it is to be fifteen years old and still a genin!?"

"About as embarrassing as trying to have a decent night on the town only to have your own teammate start brawling in the same restaurant!" Ayeka snarked right back, putting her nail grooming tools away before sending a return glare to Inuzuka Hana, "Do you know how many dates you ruined because you got miffed that a guy decided to show you a physical sign of affection?! I had this one guy from the Hyuuga clan eating out of the palm of my hand! If it hadn't been for you tossing those three guys around at the bar, I'd be Ayeka Hyuuga right now!"

"Yeah **right!** He was probably just looking to rent you out for the evening!" Hana yelled in retaliation, this time baring her teeth in anger, "After all, it's pretty much common knowledge that it's about as easy as walkin' through air to get into your pants! I'm surprised you even bother walking around with pants considering how much time you spend with them around your ankles!"

"WHY YOU--!!" Ayeka yelled with her hand reaching for her shuriken holster on her left hip.

"You can just **feel** the team spirit in **this** room!" Came an unfamiliar male voice from the entrance to the room, "No offense, Anko, but if these are my new teammates, then we might as well throw in the towel right now."

Surprised both by the male voice and what it said, Hana forgot her hourly battle of the barbs with her 'teammate' to find out whom had chosen to throw in his two cents. Standing in the doorway of the room, she saw not only her team leader and teacher Anko-sensei, but also a fifteen or sixteen year old guy. Wearing standard issue ninja sandals, bandage-wrapped shins, standard blue pants, something that looked like a wetsuit with a half-face mask at the top and wearing a Konoha forehead protector, she had no idea who he was. He wasn't as well muscled as most of the other guy ninjas that age, but he wasn't a mass of flab either and from the way he stood, it looked like he knew how to fight. However it was right about then that her mind registered what the stranger had said in its entirety and that especially included 'my new teammates'.

"What do you mean by 'teammates', wannabe?" Hana asked, not particularly liking the conclusions her own mind was making, "Teams only work in threes and we already have a third member."

"True, but at the moment Wufei is in the hospital and isn't expected to be able to return to active duty for a month. Due to an upcoming event, it has been decided that Wufei will be removed from our team and Xander here will be taking his place," Anko said officially but with a bit of apprehension in her voice. "Whether this becomes permanent or temporary will be up to Hokage-sama's discretion."

"WHAT!?" Was the reaction from both Hana and Ayeka, making it one of the few times they were on the same page about anything.

"Unless you've both gone deaf from yelling at each other so much, I think you heard me correctly. While I was not the one to suggest the change, The Third managed to persuade me to at least give it a try." Anko-sensei replied sternly, making it clear that this was not a subject up for debate, "But if you two are so against it, Sandaime Hokage did give me a way of overturning his decision."

"And that would be?" Asked Ayeka, who looked like she was a little more on the fence about the 'new teammate'.

"Once he reclaims his partner Ava, we'll be heading to the training grounds where Xander'll be tested to see if he has the skill and power to be a part of this team." Anko-sensei replied, laying out the conditions of kicking this outsider off the team, "If he cannot successfully pass the test, the Third will rescind his decision to make him a part of our team and we'll wait for Wufei to recover before taking on another mission. However, if he manages to pass the test, then he will be your new teammate and we'll see how things go from there."

_He's as good as gone!_ Hana thought as she began to examine this 'Xander' closer to see how many vulnerabilities he had, _The guy might know a few moves, but there's no way that some stranger from out of nowhere is going to get the better of us, even __**IF**__ that rich girl wannabe bails to keep her pretty self clean!_

"Then let's get going. I have an appointment in at Suki's Salon in two hours that I don't want to miss." Ayeka said as she gathered what few things she had laid out on the table and put them in her hip bag.

Hana could see both Anko and the new guy rolling their eyes at this, so maybe the newbie wasn't a complete waste if he found comments like that silly.

"Yeah. We wouldn't want Miss Konoha here to miss her beauty treatment," she said sarcastically as she got to her feet with her partners following her lead.

With those words, the temporarily 'new' Team Anko left the academy to journey to the sight of their first experience as a team.

Or their last.

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_**Forty-Five Minutes Later, Konoha Training Grounds**_

"Okay, okay **OKAY**! I get it Ava!" He snapped at the eagle hawk perched on his shoulder while glaring at her out of the corner of his eyes, "After this is done, I'll take you by the marketplace and buy you some food to make up for botching your rescue! Just calm down and stop sending images of dead rats and rabbits into my head!"

"Looks like your partner knows how worthless you are as a ninja too," commented Inuzuka Hana from a little ways ahead of him. "Still, I suppose you might make a decent enough errand boy, so I suppose even a wimp like you has his uses."

"We'll so who's making with the snappy remarks after I pass the test, Tarzanna!" Xander snapped back as he tried to decide whether the test was still to come or happening right then and there.

Ever since they'd left the academy meeting room, he'd been under verbal attack from both Hana ad Ayeka with everything from looks to his choice of animal partners being used as ammo. Hana was definitely the one pouring on the offensive, but Ayeka wasn't completely skimping on the insults either and that made him wonder how the hell they'd get along during the chuunin exams. He knew that Hokage-sama had been optimistic about how well they'd get together but, realistically, he felt that putting him with these two young women was a recipe for disaster if he ever saw one.

Looking ahead, he could see the training grounds and a feeling of half-hearted nostalgia flowed through his mind as the pseudo memories he had gained from his Halloween costume flew through his mind. From what he could tell, not a whole lot had changed with everything looking pretty much the same as they did in his mind with the exception of replaced post or missing patch of grass. While the ninja of Konoha had training facilities and areas all over the place, this was the one most commonly used by the genin as well as the chuunin. As they all came to a stop, Xander tried to deduce what sort of test Anko had come up with to see if he was good enough to run with her team. His first thought was that perhaps it was a one-on-one match with her or one of the others to see how long he could last. Maybe it was something like hide and seek, where one or two of them would run into the forest and he would have a set time limit for finding both of them despite their attempts to hide from him or evade him. It could have been any one of a number of things but the one thing it would have as a primary component no matter what was a means by which the purple haired woman could measure his skill as a ninja. With that in mind he began to mentally go through everything he could recall from his Halloween personae plus the experience he'd gained fighting ninja in this part of the world.

"Okay! Now that we're here, let's not waste time and get straight to the test." Anko said, doing a fair impression of a badass leader type, "Ayeka? Do you still have those spare ribbons in your equipment bag?"

"Hai, Anko-sensei!" Ayeka said, promptly pulling out a handful of ribbons from the bag on her hip and handing them to her leader/teacher.

"The test will be a simple one: Hana, Ayeka and myself will have one of these ribbons tied around our arms. Your goal, Xander, will be to take them from us by whatever means necessary." Anko said as she tied one ribbon to her upper arm, "While normally I'd insist on you getting all three in order to pass the test, I'm willing to go easy on you since you're fresh from the hospital. Therefore, get two of the three ribbons and you pass. However, if you only get one or don't get any at all, then you fail. You will have until the sun reaches the top of its ascent to accomplish this. Do you accept?"

"Yes." He said as he watched as Hana and Ayeka tied their ribbons onto their arms, "So, who's first?"

"I'll take him on first." Hana said as she stepped away from the rest of her team with her three dogs following her, "That way he only needs to screw up one more time before he's off the team and things go back to the way they're supposed to be."

"What? You afraid of change, Tarzanna?" Xander asked with some sarcasm in his voice as he too put some distance between himself and the two who would not be involved.

"Nah, change is good, but only when I'm the one makin' the changes." Hana replied as she began to loosen herself up and get the kinks out of her muscles.

"Then the outcome of our little fight here is going to piss you off big time," he said before setting himself into one of the basic stances for taijutsu.

_Ava? I want you to focus on keeping her three mutts off me so I can get to her without any trouble. Can you do that?_ He thought mentally while sending images to his avian partner.

The feelings he got from the bird were a mix of moderate reluctance and inquiry with images of rabbits, mice and other things eagle hawks liked to eat. Obviously the bird was wondering how much he'd pay her with food to do this job he'd asked of her and, for a moment, he wondered why he'd bothered to save her in the first place. True, it had been the right thing to do, considering how those jerks had been treating her back in that rock village, but getting her to do anything was like trying to get a date back in Sunnydale: he had to **pay** his date to be seen with him. In this case, though, he had to pay the bird to actually lift a finger in the fight and while he wasn't completely broke from his trip to Konoha, he wasn't exactly filthy rich either. Still, trying to get to Hana with her three dogs in the way would be a real pain in the ass for him and he knew he'd have a tough enough time dealing with the wild woman on her own, so there was only one real choice.

_Fine! One rabbit per opponent if we win. Satisfied? _He thought as he figured one decent sized rabbit per battle would be enough to fill the eagle hawk's stomach.

_Yes!_ Was the word that was sent back to him along with feelings of battle readiness as well as determination to achieve complete victory.

_You're one of a kind Ava!_ He thought ruefully as he almost groaned at the trouble this was going to cause his pocket book down the line.

"Everyone ready?" Anko asked from her position off to the side, "Then **begin!**"

With that the battle was joined and the two sides surged forward to do battle.

It was then that Hana took the offensive, just like he'd planned, with her dogs taking up flanking positions on both sides. Deciding he needed to disperse their formation so he could get a clear line of approach to Hana, he immediately began putting his speed seal training to use by engaging in a six seal ninjutsu. Remembering not to forsake accuracy for precision, he formed each seal as best he could as quickly as he could in the hopes that Hana wouldn't be able to keep up with him.

With the seal combination completed he had only one thing to say to her.

"KATON HOUSENKA NO JUTSU!!"

While still running, he brought his right hand up to his face and fired off a barrage of fireballs right at his four adversaries, intent on forcing them to break their formation. It worked for a few seconds, but just as quickly as they broke formation, they managed to reform it, showing that they had encountered such a tactic before. However it allowed him a peek as to how good they were and how much higher he needed to bring his game before he could move in for the kill. They worked as a team well with their timing and movements perfectly in synch with one another, allowing them to choreograph complex attack patterns. That made it more imperative than ever to break them up before they could start quadruple teaming him from all sides. Deciding to take a risk, he reached into his equipment pouch and withdrew four smoke bombs that Anko had let him take from the academy storage room before he met Hana and Ayeka for the first time. She had told him that he would eventually have to learn to make his own but he wasn't worried about that since had known how since Halloween. The only thing missing had been the proper ingredients, since some of them weren't exactly widely available outside of the hidden villages. Tossing them at the area that he estimated would be the collision point between the two of them, Xander didn't hesitate when they produced a cloud of black smoke of moderate size.

"You think a cloud of smoke will keep you safe?" Hana asked with contempt from the other side of the cloud, "Obviously you've never heard of the Inuzuka clan! Hagane, Ishina, Seirei! Let's get'em!"

Knowing that it would be seconds before they managed to attack him, Xander moved his hands as fast as he could in order to put his plan into motion.

_Rat, Tiger, Hare, Dragon, Serpent, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Bird, Dog, Boar!_ He thought as he formed each hand seal perfectly and said, "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!"

With explosions of decompressed air, four shadow clones popped into existence around him, one for each of his adversaries, ready to fight.

However this was only phase one of his plan for this stage of the fight.

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_**Anko's Point of View, Same Time**_

_Well, he's not as much of an amateur as I thought, but these are moves just about every genin can use._ She thought to herself as she watched Hana and her partners enter the cloud, _It'll take more than that to get the ribbon away from Hana._

While she couldn't quite make out what was going on inside the cloud of smoke, it was safe to say that Xander's enemies were making things difficult for him. However the words she heard come from him within the cloud made her wonder if she had underestimated him.

"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!" Xander yelled as she watched as the emergence of shadow clones began to disperse the mass of smoke.

Once enough of it had cleared, she caught sight of **four** Xander's standing around Hana, Hagane, Ishina and Seirei, with each looking identical to the other. This impressed her because, as far as she knew, this was a Jounin-level technique that only unique genin, like Uzumaki Naruto, were capable of pulling off. Of course she knew the true reason why the troublemaking ninja was able to do it and that quality was something that Xander couldn't possibly have. Therefore it was safe to say that the clones before her would last, at best, a minute before the chakra maintaining them was exhausted. Whatever the Uchiha was planning on doing, it would have to be done soon if he wanted to accomplish anything.

"So what do you think of this, Tarzanna?" Asked all four Xander's at the same time with cocky smiles on their faces, "Four shadow clones, one each for you and your dogs, and all of them just as good as I am. What do you say to that!?"

"I say you're an even bigger fool than I thought. You just wasted chakra creating four wimps that won't even take thirty seconds to snuff out!" Hana replied, not sounding worried in the least, "After all, it only takes one solid hit to take out a shadow clone and that should be easy enough for me and the girls to do."

"You and your mutts will have to catch us first!" Said all four Xander's before they scattered in four separate directions, "Catch us if you can, you frigid bitch!!"

_Kuso! He's done it now!_ She thought as she began to worry that Hana might go a bit too far in beating Xander, _If there's one thing no one should call Hana, it's __**that!**_

"FRIGID BITCH!!" Hana roared in anger as her more feral nature began to show, her nails beginning to curve into claws, "THAT'S IT! YOU'RE DEAD, YOU PRICK!!"

With that, Hana and her three dogs split up with each of them going after a Xander with the Inuzuka clan member no doubt going after the one she believed to be the genuine article. Much like her brother Kiba, Hana was fast on her feet and, while she hadn't used the Shikyaku no Jutsu to push her speed to the max, was still faster than her target in a foot race. Within seconds each of them caught up with the Xander that they'd targeted with each shadow clone looking like they knew they were in a tight spot but didn't know how to escape. With anger on each of their faces, they attacked their prey with Hana in particular looking like she was going to deal out an extra special helping of pain. Two tackles and one head butt later the only Xander left on the field was Hana's, whom she was tormenting with light slashes around the edges but nothing serious. Obviously the Inuzuka girl wanted to make her revenge last, but that couldn't be allowed since it was doubtful Hokage-sama would approve.

"Hana! What are you fooling around for?!" She asked out loud with just the right amount of authority in it, "Finish him off and then we'll give him a break before starting the next round!"

Hana looked at her for a moment and, for a split second, appeared to be prepared to go against the order, but with a sharp nod the sister of Kiba did as she was told. With a burst of speed and a thunderous knee thrust, Hana struck Xander dead center, sending him rolling across the training ground floor. Figuring that a blow like that would be enough to knock the wind out of the Uchiha's sails for the time being, Hana began to turn away so she could find a place to have a few dango. However the sound that reached her ears next made her freeze before sharply twisting her head to look in the direction of what should have been Xander finally coming to a halt. Instead she watched as the person she thought to be Uchiha Xander go 'poof' in a cloud of vapor, revealing itself to be a shadow clone as well. Needless to say she didn't think that there was anyone who wasn't surprised by this turn of events. Hana in particular was shocked, causing she and her hounds to look this way and that trying to find their prey.

"Where are you? You ASSHOLE!" Hana yelled, no doubt expecting the young man to be watching her from a distance, laughing, "Are you so chicken that you can't even face me yourself?!"

_Keep calm, Hana! Letting this little surprise get to you is only going to make Xander's job that much easier._ Anko thought to herself as she herself tried to pin down her newest student's location.

Looking carefully through the surrounding vegetation, she tried to pick out any abnormal branch movement or an area devoid of wildlife. While most genin could hide themselves decently enough in the trees or under a bush, it took time to learn to remain completely still. The impatience of youth often caused them to fidget in their hiding places, resulting in barely noticeable movements in the plants around them. For a Jounin like her, it should have been child's play to spot where Xander was hiding but, no matter how hard she looked, she could spot no clue as to where he was. As she completed her third examination of the immediate area, she realized that there was one hiding place the new Uchiha could have used that she hadn't considered yet. Quickly looking back to where she had last seen him, in the cloud of smoke he himself had created, she spotted the confirmation of her theory. A small section of the ground had been disturbed very recently and it was just big enough for a guy his size to fit through.

_Heheheheheheh! Smart! But let's see if he can build on this opening he's made for himself._ She thought as she caught onto his plan and waited to see what would happen.

It was about then that she began to feel the expected vibrations in the ground beneath her feet and watched as Xander burst from the ground directly behind Hana. To the Inuzuka girl's credit, her reactions were good as she immediately rolled to the side to avoid the boy's kick. However the newly arrived Uchiha didn't let things stop at that but rather he pressed his assault with combination after combination of taijutsu techniques. Only every other blow got through, but still he was slowly managing to do some damage, but as she watched the Haimaru Sankyodai coming to their mistress' aide, she hoped Xander had something planned or he would soon be fighting a battle on four sides. As she watched, a brown and white blur dive bomb each dog in turn, she realized why she hadn't seen Xander's feathered friend since the beginning of the battle. Somehow the teenager had instructed Ava to wait until he had separated Hana from her dogs and then ensure that no reunion took place. Adding that to what he had already done on his own and she had to admit she was a little impressed with what Uchiha Xander had managed to come up with in the space of a few minutes. While Ava wasn't actually doing the dogs any harm, the speed and angle of the bird's dives were enough to persuade the dogs to deal with her first rather than try and sneak by. Still, it was only a matter of time before those three got tired of trying to outright beat the birdbrain and came up with a plan to get at least some aide to Hana. While time had been bought, it was going to run out sooner or later, so the boy had better make the most of it.

_Tick-tock, Xander, Tick-tock._ She thought as she continued to watch events unfold with Ayeka.

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_**One Second Later, Hana's Perspective**_

"Chikushou!! Stand still, you bastard!!" She exclaimed as she took advantage of another opening in the Wannabe's defenses and attacked, only to miss him by millimeters.

Almost from the very first move this asshole had made, he had pissed her off and, with every little surprise he came up with, it was like pouring more fuel onto the fire. First he'd used smoke bombs that stank to high heaven, especially with her nose, and then created **four** kage bunshin's. Every genin in Konoha knew how advanced a move that was, with the majority of them knowing that they had to wait at least until they made chuunin before they could successfully make even one, so that left her with the question of how the hell he had managed to kick out four and still have enough chakra left over to hide himself underground. It was like he wasn't a normal genin or something, but rather someone from one of the noble families of Konoha. After all, those rich snots put out prodigies almost every year with each of them taking to jutsu training like they'd been practicing while still inside their mother's stomachs. While it was true that she herself was from a rather prestigious family, it wasn't in the same league as the Hyuuga or Uchiha clans.

_Could he be from one of those clans?_ She asked herself as she continued to try and force her body to attack faster, _NO! He's not a Hyuuga if his eyes are any indication and the only Uchiha still alive are Sasuke and his brother Itachi. He doesn't use bugs so he isn't a member of the Aburame clan, nor was he fat enough to be of the Akimichi clan! What is he!?_

Deciding that it was time to stop playing around with her adversary, Hana stopped blindly slashing at him and instead tried to trick him into revealing a vital point for her to pounce on. The change in pace quickly works in her favor and, with a single palm thrust to his jaw, she is able to send him stumbling backwards, trying to remain on his feet. Not wanting to allow him the chance to regain his bearings, she lunged forward, snaking around his attempts to put up a defense, getting in just the right position to deliver a knee to the right side of his torso. The cry of pain he let out was music to her ears, giving her incentive to continue pressing her advantage, thus turning the tables on the wannabe by allowing her to dictate the pace of the battle. Watching his body language, she could tell that he's trying to get away, to put some distance between the two of them, but thanks to Anko's teachings, she is able to predict his movements ahead of time and, thus, intercept.

_At this rate, it's only a matter of time before I beat him!_ She thought as the smell of victory filled the air, _Still, Anko-sensei will probably pitch a fit later if I let this go on for too long, so it'd be best to finish this quickly and finally!_

This with a final thrust kick to Wannabe's stomach, she set him up for a move guaranteed to bring the match to a swift conclusion. Running forward, she waited until she was about four feet from Xander and then leapt into the air feet first, landing on his shoulders.

"Time to bring this little fight to a close! Get ready for a one way trip to la-la land Wannabe," she crowed victoriously before throwing her upper body backwards and using her abdominal strength to lift Xander off his feet, releasing him about mid-way through the throw, which sent him slamming to the ground behind her shoulders-first.

Getting to her feet, she turned to see the fruits of her finishing move and was only able to grin since there was no movement from the wannabe at all. She imagined that all of the air in the boy's lungs must have been forced out by the impact of the landing, but still, if he was any kind of real man, he'd get up soon and start bitchin' about how pissed he was about being beaten by a girl. Then, of course, she would leave him with scathing remark about his less than sufficient skills before finding a place to sit down and watch the next fight.

As the seconds passed, though, with no sign of getting up or complaining coming from the wannabe, she began to wonder what was going on. She hadn't used her full strength with that final move and based on how he'd fought up until that point, she didn't think he was weak enough to be knocked unconscious. Looking through the possibilities, she started as she began to wonder if this Xander was also a Kage Bunshin or if perhaps Wannabe had used kawarimi no jutsu. Thinking back, she couldn't remember feeling anything off about how he'd felt or seen anything zipping away before she'd landed on him. Still, she hadn't realized he'd created four shadow clones either, so it wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility that he'd managed to escape her clutches again. Deciding that it was best to move in for a closer look, she warily advanced on where he lay, watching for any sign of movement. Inch by inch she crept forward until she arrived at his side, still not seeing any signs that he was going to be getting up and moving anytime soon. Moving in for a closer look, she tried to use her better than average eyesight to look for signs of irregular breathing or injury.

_Better check up close to see if he's still breathing alright._ She thought as she moved closer to his the upper part of his body to see if she could see, feel or smell him breathing properly.

It was as she was leaning over his head to take a quick sniff that his eyes snapped open, startling her into moving away from him as quickly as possible. However the distance between the two of them was too small and her reaction had been slowed by half a second with her concern that he might really be hurt in some way. Seeing him direct his head at hers, she figured that he was going to try and head butt her, so she closed her eyes and braced herself for it, as there was no way for her to get an arm up in time to block it.

What happened next though pretty much shocked her into near catatonia as, instead of feeling the pain one would associate with another skull slamming into your own, it was an experience one would more likely experience with one's boyfriend or lover.

Wannabe kissed her.

On the **LIPS!**

This shocking act immediately sent her mind into a deep freeze that she didn't escape from for five whole seconds. More than enough time, it seemed, for Wannabe to yank her ribbon off her arm and then flee to a safe distance. When she realized what was going on, she turned to him with a fury in her heart as well as on her face that made her want to pound him into the ground, regardless of what would happen to her later on.

"Rule number one about being a ninja, Hana: A true ninja must learn to think outside the box," said the Prick with a smile on his face and a ribbon in his hand. "Still, nice fight, all things considered."

"Why **you**--!" she growled as she prepared to lunge at him head on.

"That's enough, Hana! He beat you fair and square." Anko-sensei said as the Jounin walked towards them, "You've only yourself to blame for being caught off guard by that last move. Now we're going to take a thirty minute break and then the next round will begin. Ayeka has already volunteered for it."

Looking at the foul newbie, she still desired to kick his ass for what he had just done but her respect for Anko as well as the potential trouble she could get in were enough that she decided she'd obey. This time!

_You'd better hope that you don't make it onto the team, Wannabe!_ Hana thought to herself as she **strode**, not **stomped**, over to where Ayeka was leaning up against a tree, _'Cause if you do, I guarantee that your life'll be a livin' hell from then on!_

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_**Nearby Training Ground Observation Post, Same Time**_

"Hahahahahahahaha! I don't know who this new guy is but I definitely **like** his style!" Kiba laughed as he watched the conclusion of the battle between his big sister and some unknown ninja.

"I-it's definitely unique." Hinata managed to say before blushing a bit at the final **technique** that Xander had used to beat Inuzuka Hana.

"Still he has two more opponents to go, so he hasn't passed the test yet." Shino said with the utmost stoicism from his seat to the left of Kiba.

"If he's half as good with Ayeka as he was with Big Sis, then he's got this test in the bag," Kiba said, showing unusual confidence in the unidentified ninja. "After all, even if Anko-san beats him into the ground, all he has to do to beat Ayeka is toss some dirt on her and she'll probably forfeit right away."

"Maybe." Shino said before becoming as still as a statue.

While it was true that he didn't think that Ayeka would be that much of a challenge for the New Guy, it bothered him that such a skilled shinobi existed that he didn't know the name of. He had heard the past few days that some outsider ninja had been dragged in tied up by Team Gai but aside from that, there hadn't been all that much known about the newcomer. The only confirmable facts were that he had been dressed like a Konoha Jounin, had a backpack big enough for a long-term trip and had a pet eagle hawk. In fact, he knew more about the eagle hawk than he did about the guy, but that was only because his family was in charge of taking care of the animals in Konoha. From what he'd overheard from Kaasan, the bird had been seriously mistreated up until a few months ago but that had changed recently for the better. The bird's personality, though, was so arrogant and self-centered that it put up a fuss every time when the food was divided up amongst the animals, so much so that the ones assigned to passing out the food were often **persuaded** to give the bird extra just so it'd stop harassing them. While he'd only heard it in passing as he'd left home to meet up with the others, most of his mother's subordinates had been relieved when the bird had been taken off their hands.

From there he and the rest of Team Eight had met up and headed for their favorite training ground in order to work out some of the kinks they had run into on their last mission. It had been a brief trip to Grass Country to meet with one of the Lord's there who wanted a shipment of goods protected from his village to another that was three days away. Everything had gone pretty well until the middle of the final day, when they had run into a group of rogue Grass ninja that had apparently been hired by rivals of the Lord to make sure the shipment of goods never arrived. It hadn't been an easy victory, some of the rogue shinobi had actually been pretty good, but they'd won in the end and managed to ensure that the goods reached their destination. The fight had, though, pointed out a few flaws in each team member's fighting style or jutsus that Kurenai-sensei believed needed tending to, but when they'd gone up the path to the training ground, they'd found signs telling them that the training area was temporarily closed off due to a special examination that was taking place. This was something of a surprise, since all team leaders and concerned parties were usually informed a few days in advance if an area was going to be unavailable to them for a period of time. This had been enough for all of them to head to the observation post, a building usually used to observe certain ninja who warranted watching, to see what was going on.

They had arrived just in time to hear the terms of the test laid out and from there it had been one surprising move after another. Whoever the unknown kid was, he had some slick moves and managed to run circles around his sister. True, if his Big Sister had managed to calm down a bit, things might have turned out a bit differently, but expecting his sister to calm down after she's gotten this riled up was like expecting cats to suddenly start chasing dogs. It would take some serious doing and require a lot of luck, but it was possible if the circumstances were in favor of the situation.

Now, apparently, they had a thirty-minute wait before the next match leaving him with some free time on his hands. He could go down there and needle his sister about her loss to a relative unknown or he could go grab a snack from one of the vending machines nearby. While getting under his sister's skin was fun, it also had the potential to be quite painful if he wasn't fast enough in getting away from her so, on that end, he decided to go for something to eat, since he figured he could always rub her nose in her defeat later once she had a chance to cool down some.

Getting to his feet, Kiba headed for the entrance/exit of the observation post but before he could reach for the door handle, the door opened on its own. No! It opened because someone else was entering the building and had gotten a hold of the door before him. Looking up to see who it was, he was knocked for a loop when he saw who the new arrival was because he certainly couldn't figure out what this person could be doing there.

_Looks like today is going to be one of those days! _He thought as he stepped aside to allow the new person inside.

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_**The Training Ground, Twenty-Eight Minutes Later**_

_Looks like it's time for round two!_ Xander thought as he put his watch back into his pocket and got back to his feet.

Looking over at Ayeka, he tried to figure out what kind of fighter she was and what he could expect from her. He had been able to tell from one look at Hana what clan she belonged and, therefore, what style of fighting she would most likely employ. That had allowed him to map out a loose strategy on which he could build on as the fight progressed. Still, she had managed to surprise him with the ferocity of her attacks as well as the speed behind them and that was the reason for his playing possum as well as the last minute 'diversionary' tactic. He had known that if he had allowed the fight to continue as a contest of taijutsu, he'd lose sooner or later. Add to that the fact that this was Ava's first real fight and he knew she wouldn't be able to keep the three gray furred dogs busy for very long, which meant that if he wanted to snag her ribbon and win, he would have to find a way to completely pierce her defenses both physical as well as mental. Given how she had reacted to his 'frigid bitch' comment, he did the first thing that came to mind and it had worked like a charm.

The fact that it felt kinda good locking lips with her was a nice bonus.

Not that he was all that attracted to her or anything, but he had to admit that she was easy on the eyes and had a wild untamable appeal to her.

Looking at Ayeka, there were no immediate visual clues that he could use to deduce her preferred jutsus or strategies. She was dressed in clothes that were suitable for a ninja in that they would not restrict movement, gave some protection to the vital areas and looked to be durable enough that they weren't entirely meant as a fashion statement. Oh, it was definitely flattering to her figure and didn't focus on looking completely utilitarian, but they were made of fabric that could take a beating. Her hair was blonde and done up into a ponytail while allowing some hair to frame her face and, thus, enhance her more attractive facial features. Blue eyes and lips that reminded him of a teenage Angelina Jolie were her most prominent facial features, making for an impressive combination. Moving on down, she wore a white bodice with a sleeveless wire mesh tank top underneath that was form fitting enough that did little to hide her chest, which was pushed up by the bodice but the bodice didn't completely cover her torso as there was just enough of her bare stomach still visible to entice anyone who noticed. From there came the usual spandex shorts but the front and back were covered by a long female loincloth-type piece of clothing with standard blue ninja sandals. Add to that four equipment pouches placed strategically on her body and it left many possibilities as to what her specialty was but no conclusive answers.

_I guess I'll just have to be extra cautious with her until I have a better grip on what she's capable of, _Xander thought as he walked to the center of the training ground.

He'd had a small snack and done his best to recover the chakra he'd lost in his fight with Hana, but he still wasn't quite back up to full strength. He'd have to use his strength more carefully and save as much as he could because, win or lose, he'd be facing Anko probably thirty minutes after his fight with Ayeka. Considering she was a Jounin, he'd need every scrap of energy he could to pull out a win against her should he fail to secure a flag in this fight.

Seeing her saunter into position, it was clear that she wasn't worried about the outcome of the fight in the slightest. He had possessed a slight hope that seeing her teammate beaten might have given her reason to rethink her chances against him and perhaps plant a seed of doubt within her, but that didn't mean that he couldn't deal with the situation or pull off a win somehow. After all, in his opinion, a true ninja was someone who could adapt to any situation they were tossed into and still manage to accomplish the assigned mission. Still, maybe she'd be confident enough to just tell him what her specialty was if just asked. After all, cocky people always spilled the beans about what they could do because they thought that there was no way their enemy could win even with that knowledge.

It was worth a shot.

"So, what's your thing?" Xander asked, trying to sound casual and nonchalant about it, "Hana's was pretty obvious with her three dogs, but I have to admit figuring out yours is a bit harder."

"You'll find out soon enough, cutie." Ayeka said playfully while shaking her finger at him.

_Damn! Looks like she's smarter than she looks. _He thought as he set himself into a loose defensive stance just in case she decided to go on the offensive first.

"Alright, you two. This is going to be the second of the three matches and the clincher for you, Xander, if you want to earn a place on this team." Anko said as she got into her referee position in between the two of them, "That means I'm expecting nothing but the best from the both of you. Understand, Ayeka?"

"No problem, Anko-sensei! He might have been able to mess around with Hana-baka, but he won't have time to do that with me." Ayeka said confidently as she moved her hands closer to her equipment pouches.

_Does this mean she's a shuriken specialist? Or does she have scrolls in there that can protect her from my attacks?_ He wondered as he did a quick search of his inherited Halloween memories in the hopes of figuring out what her talents were, _No way of knowing until she actually does something!_

"Ready…and **BEGIN!**" Anko declared before leaping back to where Hana was fuming up against a tree.

Almost faster than he could see, Ayeka drew a fist full of throwing stars from her equipment bag and threw them at him with serious speed and deadly accuracy. So quick were her movements that she succeeded in startling Ava off his shoulder and making him dodge to the side rather than pull out a kunai to block with. With this opening move, it looking liked the blonde was a long-range fighter and that naturally meant that if he wanted to win, he'd have to get in close. It was a basic rule among ninja that those that focused on medium to long-range attacks did so because they didn't have a whole lot of talent in close quarters combat. With that in mind, he mentally sent a command to Ava to circle around to Ayeka in the opposite direction he was coming at her from. It was his plan to force the young woman to divide her arsenal in half as well as her attention which hopefully would make it easier for him to bring this into close range combat. Once that was done, he should be able to make short work of her and get her ribbon without expending too much chakra.

At least, that _was_ his plan.

When Ayeka reached into her equipment pouch a second time to get too more handfuls of shurikens, he was soon introduced to a flaw in his plan. Leaping into the air, the blonde kunoichi threw her shuriken at her two enemies but then did something he did not expect from her.

_Ram, Rat, Bird, Boar, Tiger? What jutsu is she trying to pull off?_ He thought as he failed to come up with a technique in his mind that used such a seal combination, but it only took one second for him to find out because she finished the seal combination and gave him the name of the technique.

"SHURIKEN KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!" She exclaimed and, before his eyes, the number of sharp metal objects heading his way went from four to fourteen.

Flipping backwards as fast as his body could take him, Xander scrambled to get clear of the area where the flying objects would land. Looking at Ava out of the corner of his eye, he could see that she too had been hard pressed to escape harm and, judging from the clip reel of him cursing, she hadn't liked the surprise any more than he had. Bringing out two of his own kunai, he did an immediate re-evaluation of his adversary since his first impression of her just being a projectile user was obviously inaccurate. Her use of a moderate level ninjutsu definitely demanded that he take her seriously if he wanted to win his confrontation with her. His new appraisal of her had him thinking that she was skilled in all manner of jutsu that would keep one's enemy from getting close enough to strike her physically, which was a difficult defense, especially considering how much your average equipment pouch could contain and she had **four** of them. Definitely a pain in the ass as far as obstacles went, especially since he'd probably run out of energy before his busty battle bud ran out of things to throw at him. Somehow he had to fix that or he'd be left with nothing in the way of strength to use when it was Anko's turn. His first thought was to use kage bunshin no jutsu, since it would force her to use up more and more of her weapons in order to disperse the fake Xanders, but if she was half the projectile user he thought she was, then she'd be able to disperse a clone with one shot rather than the four that he'd prefer. Dodging her shots until she ran out of shuriken wouldn't work either since he was fairly certain she'd ration her arsenal carefully and limit her shots to high hit probabilities.

_Gotta think of another way to make her reckless with her weapons! _He thought as he slid to a halt near the edge of the forest lining the training area, _Preferably without letting any of them hit me!_

It was then that it hit him, an idea, not a projectile.

He had the perfect environment for making her waste her ammo right behind him, but the trick would be tricking her into following him in. If she knew how to use her tools, then she also had to know what areas were bad for them to be used in. Thinking back to what little he had come to know about her, he tried to think of the one thing that would piss her off enough to ignore common sense as well as its brother rational thought. Scene after scene and word after word he reviewed until he recalled the yelling match the blonde had been having with Hana when he'd first met them. The words spoken then had been enough to get Ayeka to focus her entire attention on Tarzanna but not enough to make her completely lose control. How could he piss her off even more?

_I'll probably have to make it up to her big time later, but it's the only way._ He thought as he decided on a course of action.

"Hey Ayeka! How's about we get some dinner later okay? My treat," he called, sounding like he was being honest.

"Huh? Dinner?" Ayeka asked half-rhetorically and half-seriously as she tried to wrap her mind around.

"Yeah. Dinner, a movie and maybe a nightcap at your place? After all, if Hana's right, that's the way dates usually go for you, right?" He asked as he prepared to deliver the punchline that would toss her over the edge, "Of course, you'd probably want to skip the dinner, the movie and just head straight for the bed. It's what you do best, right?"

"Kono YAROU!! KIEUSERU!" Ayeka yelled before she tossed four handfuls of projectiles at him with the intention of turning him into a pin cushion.

Quickly making the ram hand seal, he executed a flawless kawarimi no jutsu at the last second, forcing a log to take the sharp metal objects for him.

"So does that mean this is your idea of foreplay? No offense, but whatever happened to the trail of clothes and sexy lingerie from Victoria Secret?" He goaded her, as though puzzled by some new fad or trend, "Or maybe you're one of those S&M types? Power games, whips and stuff like that? If that's the case, then I'm afraid I'm gonna have to decline."

With equal parts shock and rising anger Ayeka looked at him as though she had never been spoken to like this in her entire life. For a moment it looked like it'd be a toss up as far as which way her emotions would drive her, so he felt he had to give her one more poke to get her going where he wanted her.

"Now, if you want to use warm chocolate sauce or sundae stuff, then that's another story." He said as he cocked his metaphorical finger to deliver the poke, "Of course, I draw the line at going anywhere near your butthole with my tongue, so one way or another it probably won't be as satisfying for you in the end."

Seeing her eyes develop a killing intent in them and her fists clench to the point where her knuckles were beginning to turn white, Xander knew he'd hit the mark. Right then it probably would have been a good idea to make a run for the forest before she started raining pain down him with projectiles as well as ninjutsu techniques. He just made it into the forest when a kunai slammed into a tree branch by his head, missing some pretty important parts by less than a centimeter. He had hoped that her fury over his comments would mess her aim up by at least twenty percent but it looked like ten percent was the most he could hope for in this case.

_Time for things to get interesting! _He thought as he dove into the nearby bushes and out of Ayeka's line of sight.

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_**The Training Area, Anko's Perspective, One Second Later**_

_**Sigh**__! I'm really going to have to teach those girls to keep a tighter leash on their emotions._ Anko thought with disappointed resignation as she watched Ayeka run into the forest after Xander.

She had known that from the beginning that Hana wouldn't be able to stay calm fighting Xander, since it went against the teenage genin's more feral nature, but she had hoped that after seeing how the first match ended that Ayeka would be smart enough to not let her emotions get out of her control. Unfortunately the same emotion that caused her so many headaches being the leader of their team was the same emotion that had caused the downfall of one of them and was seriously impairing the chances of the other. She had tried to tell them over and over again that a ninja needed to keep a form grip on their emotions when they were fighting. They didn't have to become completely emotionless, but they couldn't be emotionally out of control to the point where they couldn't think straight. They had to find a halfway point between the two extremes and then hold it no matter what the current situation might inspire in them, but sadly it looked like it would be a few more years before she could expect that kind of emotional balance in Hana and Ayeka.

After giving a nonverbal order for Hana to stay put, Anko too entered the forest but made sure to conceal her chakra as best she could and stay clear of the battle zone. She had to make sure to watch Xander closely in order to appraise his skills, after all, and if she needed to pull Ayeka off of him, being too far away would be a problem. It took her less than a minute to catch up with Ayeka but when she tried to locate Xander, that turned out to be a bit harder to do. He wasn't anywhere obvious where just anyone could spot him and he wasn't hiding in any place that would be easy for Ayeka to find him, but she found him. Not visually, per se, but she could detect the impact he was having on the environment surrounding him and that was enough. She had to wonder why he had changed the location of his fight with Ayeka, though. Was it because he wanted to use the surrounding trees and bushes as cover from her attacks? No. Even if he used the forest for cover Ayeka knew enough elemental ninjutsu that she could clear the surrounding area fairly quickly. Add to that the explosive notes the blonde kept a stash of in her equipment pouches and how easily they could change the landscape in the training area. Even if he didn't know enough about Ayeka to know what she carried with her, he'd have to be pretty stupid not to understand that fact.

_So what's your real plan, Xander?_ She thought inquiringly as she watched Ayeka look in every conceivable direction including down for her prey.

It was then that she noticed movement in one of the tree branches to the left of Ayeka. That was odd, since to her knowledge Xander was to the right of the blonde female ninja, but the reasons soon became clear when out from behind the trunk came one Uchiha Xander.

_A Kage Bunshin?_ She thought since she could plainly see the branch bending under the clone's weight, _No it's not!_

There's no way it could be a Kage Bunshin and not crunch with each step on the bark of the branch itself. Ayeka probably doesn't notice the absence of this sound with the creeking of the main branch itself coveirng it up, but her experience as a Jounin made it possible. That would imply that it was just an ordinary bunshin no jutsu but then how could the branch be moving if there wasn't any actual weight on it? Looking all around the branch itself, she tried to figure out how the newcomer was pulling it off and that was when she spotted a faint reflection of light in mid-air, which was when she caught onto his plan and had to will herself not to laugh at the charade the young man was managing to pull off. 'What the eyes seen and the ears hear, the mind believes' was the way it had been put in her genjutsu classes back at the academy, but while most ninja would simply use a genjutsu technique in a situation like this, Xander was taking things one step further. He was using a genjutsu as a distraction and using near invisible wire to make it look like the real deal to Ayeka's eyes. A cunning trick and, if Ayeaka failed to pick up on it, she would likely waste the majority of her weapons, if not all of them, attacking ghosts and that she supposed was the point of the scheme.

_If she has nothing left to throw at him, she'll be forced to rely on ninjutsu and genjutsu to fight him._ She thought as she imagined what was likely to happen, _Not a smart thing to do when facing an Uchiha._

"Looking for me, Miss Ten-cents-per-night?" Asked the bunshin Xander, his hands in his pockets, looking as casual as ever.

"TOJIKOMERU! I **am NOT a SLUT!**" Ayeka yelled at the top of her lungs as she practically glared fire at the bunshin, "And **you're** about to learn the **hard** way what happens to guys that **piss ME OFF!**"

With that the furious blonde bombshell began to unleash a barrage of shuriken, kunai and other assorted blades that surprised even her. If it was sharp and could be thrown at a target, it was probably in one of her equipment pouches, in her hands or heading for bunshin Xander. She had thought that there'd be a decent limit on what Ayeka could use, since there were only four equipment pouches strapped to her body, but apparently her student had sealed a few dozen weapons into some scrolls as well. It got so bad that she herself had to dodge a few stray kunai that got thrown in her direction, but by the time the blonde ran out of weapons, everything within a fifty yard radius had something sticking out of it. What really impressed her, though, was that Xander had been able to make his bunshin dodge what it could and hide behind a tree or something to make it difficult to tell whether it had actually been hit. She could tell that her student had paused briefly between throws whenever she thought she hit him that she believed for a moment that she'd hit him only to be proven wrong when the bunshin reappeared unharmed. Throughout it all, the bunshin continued to press Ayeka's buttons in order to throw her weapons or use jutsu recklessly and it worked like a charm.

_Now, though, she's all out of weapons and can't exactly run around to pick up all the ones littered around her._ Anko thought as Ayeka looked to be about five minutes from throwing a fit like a five year old, _If Xander has any tactical sense, he'll move in close now before Ayeka starts using some of the more destructive ninjutsu._

Showing that great minds thought alike, she watched as the bunshin Xander charged towards the blonde battler as though it was going to attack while the real Xander emerged from his hiding spot and charged forward from the opposite direction at the same time, giving her student two targets to deal with. It was a situation that many ninja had to deal with both in training and in the real world: two enemies and only enough time to attack one before the other arrived. If her subordinate chose to attack the wrong one Xander, the other would be able to deliver a devastating first attack and maybe win the match, but if Ayeka managed to clue into the fact that one of the Xanders was just a ghost-like bunshin, then the real Xander would have to do some fast thinking.

Fortunately Ayeka quickly proved that she was not a complete fool and noticed that the bunshin Xander was not kicking up any dirt as it ran. Turning to face the real deal, the blonde butt kicker immediately went through a seal combo in under three seconds before she unleashed it on her enemy.

"KATON, GOUKAKYUU NO JUTSU!!" Exclaimed Ayeka as she brought her right hand up to her mouth and unleashed a large fireball at her oncoming adversary.

This apparently was something of a surprise for Xander but that just showed how new he was to the way of the ninja. While it was true that the Uchiha clan specialized in fire ninjutsu, they were by no means the only people capable of using it. Still, she hoped that they concluded the fight soon so she could put out the fires the technique had started before it burned down the entire forest. It was pretty much a rule amongst ninja that if you damaged a training area too much, that you were expected to repair it yourself. Considering how much trouble it'd be to replant an entire forest, she had no wish to get tied to a bothersome job like that for the next few weeks.

Fortunately for her, Xander realized this as well and decided to put an end to the fight before things went any further. Using projectile weapons from his own pouch, he began to rain down weapons at Ayeka left and right, most likely with the intent of pinning her in one spot. However the young man failed to remember that as a specialist in ninjutsu and projectile weaponry, the blonde ninja was also adept at dealing with them when used against her. It was with these skills that her beauty-obsessed student managed to dodge most of the weapons while catching the rest for use against the Uchiha. However just as the number of weapons reached the maximum amount that one could skillfully use, Xander's speed doubled in an instant, closing the gap in half the time it would have taken before. She realized what his true intention had been in throwing his projectile weapons at Ayeka: instead of trying to hit her or even harm her, he had been temporarily trying make it impossible for her to form seals while the weapons were in her hands. More than that, he had apparently concealed his true speed during his fight with Hana in order to save it for moments like this that required a swift ending. Ayeka had also come to this conclusion as well, but by then it was too late for her to do anything, even if she dropped what she had caught immediately.

Thus it all came to an end with a single palm thrust to her student's stomach, the fight was over. With no air in her lungs, Ayeka's strength was gone and it was all too easy for him to take the ribbon off of the belt on which her equipment pouches were strapped.

_Looks like he passes the test._ Anko thought as she watched him carefully lower Ayeka to the ground, _Still, he won mostly because Hana and Ayeka didn't keep their emotions in check and see through his plans. I need to see if he can win without those advantages._

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_**Training Ground Observation Post, One Minute Later**_

_Heheheheheheh! He might not have had much time to see what his mother was like as a ninja, but he definitely takes after her in how he fights!_ Sarutobi thought as he watched Anko, Xander and Ayeka exited the forest via the hidden cameras, _She always had to find unconventional ways of using jutsus. The fact that she managed to pull it off more often than not only made it that much more impressive._

Indeed that was one of the traits that made Uchiha Jun'ko stand out amongst her fellow clan members. While others were content to just learn techniques that already existed, she had a habit of taking those techniques and using them in ways no one could predict. Most of her fellow ninja made fun of her each time one of her experiments blew up in her face, but when one of her theories was actually proven to be right, it never failed to shock those that witnessed it. From the moment she graduated from the academy and got assigned to Tsunade's team, that was what she did whenever she had a spare moment. Whether it be on a mission or within the safety of the village wall, the one who earned the alias as the Mistress of Mayhem spent her free time 'improving those dusty old jutsu', as she used to call them.

Inuzuka Tsume, Aburame Shinju and Uchiha Jun'ko were known as the three Temptresses of Konoha, but not for the reason most people thought when they heard that name. Most figured it meant that they spent their time teasing some guys and bedding others whenever some ninja caught their eye. Instead, they tempted fate and those in power into punishing them for their antics, confident in the knowledge that so long as they didn't do anything to piss Tsunade off too badly, they could get away with it. For the most part that was true, since every time he called her into his office to discuss the latest bit of chaos the three young women had caused, it almost always ended the same way. He would reveal what her girls had done and then Tsunade would have a good laugh, since the antics would often amuse her greatly. He would then try to impress upon his former student how allowing the trio to continue behaving like they did it would only make them reckless when on a mission. The granddaughter of the First Hokage would then point out that their pranks would actually help the perfect their concealment and evasion abilities, since both abilities were necessary in order to pull off a prank. Then he would point out that allowing their actions to go unpunished, that it would cause unrest among the other villagers and perhaps lead to some attacking the girls out of revenge. This pretty much ended the discussion at this point, since Tsunade would then declare that anyone who dared lay a finger on her girls wouldn't make it to see the sun set at which point the more impatient of his former pupils would storm out of the room and go to the nearest restaurant to have some sake. It was only when the three of them went too far or ruined whatever the Princess had planned that day that they were seriously punished.

When Tsume, Shinju and Jun'ko became Jounin, they went their own ways, each going into a field that suited them. For Tsume, it was following in her mother's footsteps by becoming the chief caregiver to the various animals of Konoha, both the combat types as well as the domestic ones. For Shinju, it was the diplomatic division of the village, since it was said that no matter what ploy visiting dignitaries used to try and provoke an emotional reaction, they could use the woman who never lost her temper, mostly because with her it was a case of 'been there, done that, so what else ya got?' due the lady of the Aburame clan had used most of them herself as prank distractions. For Uchiha Jun'ko, though, she became a teacher at the academy and even had her own team for a time. He even remembered a time when she took aside two quarrelling rivals and showed them alternative ways to think as well as to fight. Needless to say, the results continued to impress him to this very day, making the mark she left on the village a lasting one. Sadly, it was not the mark that the villagers remembered most nowadays and it caused him to shake his head with regret each time he heard cruel words spoken of her.

_Hopefully, though, Xander will not have to bear the weight of their hatred and malice._ He thought as he sensed a group of people approaching the observation post, _If he does, then he may wind up going down the same dark path as my idiot apprentice. The path of one with great potential but looked at by others as a creation of evil that should never have been brought into the world._

Turning towards the door, he saw it open and admit the four people he had invited to watch this test. While he had hoped that the quartet would arrive in time to see the entire test, he had wasn't surprised considering who led the group. Almost from the day that Hatake Kakashi came into the world, people could count on him being late in one form or another for something at which point the snow-haired ninja would come up with some ridiculous excuse that fooled no one. However when he'd asked the members of Team Seven to come to the training ground observation post, he'd taken everything into consideration. He knew that the four of them would probably not make it in time for the first two matches but, he figured that if he sent the message early enough they'd be sure to make in time for the final one. While it would have been entertaining for them, it was what he knew would happen in the final match that he watched Team Kakashi to be present to witness. While there had been some chance involved with regards to whether or not Anko would push for a third match between her and Xander, he'd been confident that she would.

"You asked for us, Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked with his usual politeness with his face, betraying nothing since it was four fifths covered up.

"Yes. I thought you and your team might be interested in watching this examination test taking place in the training grounds." He replied, not letting them know that he had secondary motives, "I assume you've all heard of the unknown shinobi that Gai and his team brought in three or days ago right?"

"The one that has been staying in the hospital since then with guards posted at every entry point?" Kakashi asked, replying with a question of his own.

"That's the one. He was released earlier today and after tending to some personal business, I offered to place him on a team of genins that recently found themselves down a member." Sarutobi replied, not wanting to let the most important bit of information get out too soon, "He accepted but Anko wanted to test him first to see if he was good enough to be on her team. So far he's managed to pass the official test but I think she wants to give him one more herself."

"Nani? Why are you giving some stranger a place on a team, Jijii?" Naruto asked, looking like he couldn't comprehend how a newcomer to the village could go from tied up prisoner to genin team member in less than a week.

"Let's just say he's a living example of a favorite saying of mine." He replied cryptically with a small smile.

"What saying is that Hokage-sama?" Sakura asked with her usual curiosity.

"'A Stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet'" he replied before turning to the array of video monitors that covered the far wall, "Now why don't you all sit down and I'll show you what Xander has managed to do so far."

With that he used the remote in his hand to rewind the recording of Anko's test to the beginning so Team Seven could view everything from the beginning.

After all, Anko would probably give Xander at least some time to recover his strength so they'd have time for a quick recap of the previous matches.

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_**Thirty Minutes Later, Training Ground**_

"Looks like I passed the test Anko." Xander said as he held up both of the ribbons he snagged from Hana and Ayeka, "So what's next?"

He knew that it wouldn't be that simple even if he had passed the requirements set down at the beginning of the test. If Anko was anything like the students personality wise, then the purple haired woman would not like the fact that he'd managed to beat two of her apprentices like he had. She'd probably feel compelled to salvage the team's reputation by facing him herself. Either that or she'd want to make sure he didn't get a swelled head over his two in a row victory over the others. Not that he'd been planning on getting cocky anyways, as his victory over Hana was a mix of trickery, blind luck and last minute planning on his part. Contrary to what some might have thought, he hadn't planned on getting thrown by her or planned to kiss her in order to stall her brain long enough to grab the ribbon. It had been a by-the-seat-of-your-pants plan he'd come up with at the last second after he'd recovered his wits following the impact on the ground. It had worked, though, and he'd gotten her ribbon but if he had to fight her again then it was likely that she'd have him for lunch unless he managed to figure out a way to compensate for his lack of skill in taijutsu.

_Maybe I could go find that weird Gai or his student Lee. They seemed to be pretty good at taijutsu. Maybe they're even taijutsu specialists, therefore learning from them should help me do better at hand-to-hand combat._ He thought as he looked briefly in Hana's direction, _But I'll have to catch them when Ahou-sama isn't around, though! No way am I putting up with his snooty attitude if I don't have to._

With Ayeka, though, he'd gone in with a pretty decent plan.

Except for one minor detail.

He had **COMPLETELY** underestimated how **GOOD** she was at ranged combat!

With a combination of both projectile weapons and ninjutsu, she'd managed to keep him at a distance almost throughout the entire match. It was only when he'd come up with the idea to make her waste all off her ammunition that he'd managed to make some headway, even then though she'd managed to make him work for that ribbon surprising him with that flame element jutsu. In the end, it had been his move to remove her hands from the equation that had helped him score a win in the end. It had cost him a bit more chakra than he'd wanted to use at the time but he couldn't argue with the results.

If things went the way he expected, namely Anko challenging him to one more fight, then he doubted that he be able to win using such simple tactics. She was a special Jounin, after all, so while his chances of victory were slim at best, they weren't entirely hopeless since it was safe to say she wouldn't go all out. She'd probably keep to C level jutsu and only pull out the B rank techniques if he got too close to beating her. If it turned out that in the end he couldn't beat her, he would at the very least make sure to give a good showing of himself.

"Simple. While you may have beaten Ayeka and Hana, I've decided to have you pass one more test just to make sure that the others weren't flukes," Anko said with a confident smile on her face. "You and I will fight but instead of taking my ribbon to win, all you'll have to do is last five minutes in order to pass. If you can still stand up after five minutes, then you pass. However if you can't, then you'll be the one doing all the crappy jobs for the team from here on out. Laundry, cooking, cleaning and anything else me, Ayeka and Hana can think of at the time. So, do you accept?"

_All their stupid chores!?_ He thought to himself as he pictured several unpleasant worse case scenarios in his mind.

"Keep in mind, though, that if you don't fight me then you automatically lose and have to do the chores for the team anyway." Anko said, finishing her final move to put him between a rock and a hard place.

"Fine. I accept your final test." He said deciding to press his luck a little further, "However, since we're playing for high stakes here, then howsabout we make things a little more even?"

"How?" Anko asked sounding a bit curious about what he'd have to say.

"Like you said, if I lose and can't last the full five minutes then I'll do all the crap jobs for the team." He said before putting on a scheming grin, "However if you lose then…we go to nothing but co-ed baths for at least three months. You game?"

He wouldn't really hold them to it if he won, but then he wouldn't exactly be looking a gift horse in the mouth if they wound up going through with it later. After all, while Hana's personality and what he heard from Hokage-sama about Ayeka might make them tough to get along with, they were both babes in terms of appearance. Anko especially caught his eye, but since she'd be the assigned teacher to the team then he'd have to settle with her being eye candy and maybe a verbal sparring partner. After all, even he had lines he wouldn't cross when it came to pursuing pretty ladies and chasing after your teacher was definitely not his thing… though an argument could have been made for Jenny Calendar the computer teacher. Anko, though was easily six or eight years older than him and, contrary to what the gang back home would say, he didn't aim for older weird ladies on purpose. He hadn't known that Ms. French was a demon bug and he didn't know that Ampata was really a cursed mummy girl when he started getting close to them, so with Anko, it'd just be eye candy and contests of wit for him.

"Of course. I hope you like cleaning Hana's clothes." She said as she got ready to begin the fight, "They tend to get a bit rank after a good days work."

"Oh, I don't think I'll have to worry about that." He said as he pulled out a kunai from his equipment pouch, "I hope that you don't shrivel up too quickly in the bath later on."

"Then let's get this party started!" Anko exclaimed before throwing a barrage of needles at him faster then anything he'd encountered fighting Ayeka.

It was then more than any other time that he patted himself on the back for bringing out a kunai before the match started. The needles were going too quickly for him to dodge them and that meant he had to block them instead if he wanted to avoid taking damage. With precise movements, he intercepted or deflected the needles without exposing any of his vital points with unnecessary movements. Only the ones that had a low probability of actually hitting him were allowed to proceed on their way without his interference. However when he was done and looked to launch his own attack against Anko, he was shocked to find the place where she had attacked him from vacant completely.

_Chikusho!!_ He thought as he realized the true purpose of Anko's attack was to get him to take his eyes off her temporarily so she could vanish.

Doing his best to keep his cool despite his screw up, he kept his kunai in the best defense position he could think of while his eyes carefully went over the surrounding area. Taking his eyes off of her had to have been the worst mistake he could possibly made against a Jounin of Anko's caliber. At least with her in his sights he would be able to counter her moves by careful observation, but with nothing to observe, he was definitely in a bad situation. Now she could literally attack from any direction at all and he'd have mere seconds to evade, counter or block her attacks, assuming he had even that. The only way to turn the situation around was to find some way to draw her out and keep her there because if he allowed her to dictate the pace of the fight, he'd lose for sure.

_But how!? She won't fall for any cheap tricks like I used against the others!_ He thought as his mind scrambled for a way to make Anko reveal herself.

After three minutes of no great ideas, he decided to go with a half-baked one in the hopes that it would at least buy him some more time. Reaching with his free hand, he extracted two of his four remaining smoke bombs and threw them to the ground at his feet. As the black smoke obscured his vision he quickly began to form the necessary seals with his hands and when finished used the technique he hoped would help him out.

_BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!_ He cried out in his mind, since it wasn't necessary for him to say it out loud to make the technique work.

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_**The Forest to the Right, Same Time, Anko's Perspective**_

_That trick again? Doesn't he know that a ninja should never use the same trick twice?_ Anko thought as she watched the cloud of smoke begin to disperse, _I guess I'll have to remind him the hard way!_

Seeing as how she already had given him a lesson in long-range attacks, she decided that this time she'd go after him using taijutsu. Watching the smoke get to the halfway point of dispersion, she found that her hunch that he was repeating the technique he'd used against Hana was correct. On the surface it was a good move when you didn't know where the enemy was going to come from and didn't have a team to back you up. It was also a point in his favor that he hadn't called out the name of the technique, since it kept his strategy a secret until the last possible second. However kage bunshin's only did so much good against a skilled opponent and since it only took a single direct hit to destroy them these four wouldn't last for very long. Like a sprinter of high caliber, she shot out from her hiding place and, just when the sound of her footsteps would have alerted him, she leapt into the air. The shadow clones caught onto her presence just before she reached them but by then it was too late as she let loose a kick that would take out the first as well as a second perhaps. However, as she soon learned, there was another rule that a ninja should keep in mind and try never to forget.

What one sees and what actually is does not match up always.

Instead of feeling her foot make contact temporarily with a kage bunshin, her foot instead went right through as though there was nothing there to begin with. It was in that instant that she realized that what Xander had done wasn't Kage Bunshin no Jutsu but rather the much simpler Bunshin no Jutsu.

_He planned this! He knew I'd expect him to use Kage Bunshin no Jutsu after he threw those smoke bombs and did this instead to draw me out! _She thought with some surprise at this clever move, _Still, it's nothing I can't work with!_

With a slight adjustment in her aerial position, she landed low to the ground and then immediately went about locating the real Xander by testing the tangibility of each one. Eventually she found the right one and confirmed it when she felt her fist hit something solid rather than empty air masked by a genjutsu. Now that the 'where' had been settled, she now had to drive her point home just as she had with her needle barrage at the beginning. Thus, with speed and precision, she took her efforts to the next level delivering blow after blow to him switching the style of taijutsu she used at random. Some he managed to actually block, but most of them got through since she had the edge in speed, skill and experience. She didn't put a whole lot of power behind her blows, she didn't want to seriously hurt him after all, but they were quick enough that his attempts to block them were only partially effective. He made efforts to put some distance between the two of them but it was like a perfectly rehearsed fight scene with neither of them getting more than three feet away from each other at any time.

_He better think up something quick if he wants this to last the full five minutes._ She thought as she mentally estimated how much time had passed since the match started, _It's barely been two minutes so far and that means he has three more to go._

It was when he suddenly managed to not only dodge one of her attacks but also knock her back with a kick of his own that sent her back a dozen steps that she knew something had changed. She'd managed to dull the attack by quite a bit, but the fact that he had gone from barely able to block some of her blows to landing a solid one of his own. Looking back at him, she tried to pick out what had changed it took only five seconds for her to zero in on it.

His eyes.

He'd activated his Sharingan.

_This is where things get interesting._ She thought as watched the young Uchiha took up a more offensive stance.

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_**The Hidden Observation Post, Same Time, Sasuke's P.O.V**_

"Sharingan!?" Sasuke exclaimed as he saw the same Kekkei Genkai as he had in the eyes of the teenager on the screens in front of him.

He could hear exclamations of surprise from the others around, him but he doubted that their reactions were even close to his. With an almost fanatical level of focus, he examined the area around this unknown ninja's eyes for any signs that the eyes had been implanted but could see no visible scarring. While there was a chance that an expert medical-nin had done the job and managed not to leave any scars, it was very much doubtful. The level of precision such an operation would require would be great and, if Kakashi-sensei was any indication, those that had Sharingan implanted in them could not be turned off. That was the reason why he probably walked around with his forehead protector covering that eye, it was a way to decrease the drain his Sharingan eye had on him, rather than walking around with it always exposed. However that would mean that if the eyes weren't implanted, then this guy had some sort of tie to his clan.

_But that's impossible! Itachi killed everyone over five years ago!_ He thought as he tried to reconcile what he thought he knew with what his eyes were telling him, _Who __**IS**__ he?!_

"How can he use Sharingan, Hokage-sama? Is he an Uchiha?" Sakura asked, who, as usual, was interested in any new fact she could store within her mind.

"While I think it best to hear the details from Xander, I can confirm that he is an Uchiha and that he has come a long way to tend to personal matters and reunite with the family he never knew he had." Hokage-sama replied with an 'I-know-more-than-you' look in his eyes, "Assigning him to a team and having this test take place was decided by myself and the ruling council as the best way to integrate him into the village. Considering how he's managed to fair so far, I'd say it was the right choice."

A sound opinion based on what the Third had managed to show them of Xander's battles with the Inuzuka woman and the long-range specialist. The newly-revealed Uchiha had managed to use each woman's strengths against them and, after adding a little surprise to the mix, had emerged victorious. While he would have won on skill and talent alone, Sasuke had to admit that the plans weren't all that bad for someone coming out of nowhere from outside Konoha. However it was also clear that the young man with an eagle hawk as a partner hadn't had a complete education in the ways of the ninja. The techniques he used were all over the place in terms of their rank and his taijutsu abilities were definitely not where most genin had them. That could mean that either the person who taught him hadn't had a very structured learning plan mapped out or Xander had come across a repository of technique scrolls and tried to teach himself. Sasuke knew that if he had come across a chest of jutsu scrolls and no one telling him what order they went in, he'd attempt to learn the ones that either looked or sounded the most impressive, but that did little to explain where he came from and what his connection to the Uchiha clan was.

_Who were his parents? When had they left the village? How had they escaped the massacre of their clan? What were these 'personal matters' he had come to Konoha to handle?_

These and many more questions were bouncing around inside his head and he decided right then that, as soon as the fight with Anko-san was over, he would go and ask every last one of them. Sasuke didn't like unknowns and he especially didn't like them if they had some sort of connection to his clan. It had been the unknown darkness within his brother that had allowed his trechery to go undetected for so long. If they had only picked up on the signs earlier, if they'd just been given a little more time to prepare, then he and this Xander wouldn't be the only two survivors of a once prosperous clan. He was never going to allow himself or the people he cared about be blindsided like that again! He would learn everything he could about this new member of the Uchiha clan and if the guy in his mid-teens turned out to be another Itachi in the making, then he would die.

He would not watch the people he cared for die in front of his face again!

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_**Xander's Perspective, The Training Ground, Two and a Half Minutes Later**_

_Looks like Sharingan wasn't the big help I thought it'd be!_ He thought as his eyes saw where Anko's next punch was coming from but didn't help him block it, _Just because I can see which direction her attack is going to come from doesn't mean I'll be able to block it. She's definitely the faster of the two of us._

Still, using the bloodline limit of the Uchiha clan had improved his odds somewhat, since now he was capable of blocking a little more than half of the attacks she threw at him. Add to that the conditioning his body had undergone fighting demons and training to be a better ninja and he was confident he could take her blows for a while longer. He'd be a mess of bruises and would probably get one helluva lecture later from that doc at the hospital, but if managed to hold out, it'd be worth it. He'd be on the team, he wouldn't have to do any stinkin' chores and, unless they put up a lot of fuss, he might even get to experience a co-ed bath with them. All in all, an equal trade from his point of view so he didn't mind getting roughed up a bit.

_I still have twenty-five seconds to go though and if she has the same time in her head, then this'll be when she goes all out to make sure I don't win!_ He thought as he mentally prepared himself for the most intense seconds of his life.

Focusing all his power and attention on defense, he doubled his current efforts at blocking, evading or parrying her attacks. He didn't even bother to try and score hits of his own anymore, since that would have been a waste of energy and expose him to potential counterattacks. Proving that he was better than her was not the point of this test, but rather it was one of endurance and that meant not wasting energy. With this goal in mind, his stance and movements became all about defense rather than a balance between it as well as offense, which resulted in him managing to handle up to three quarters of her attacks and making it that much more likely that he would make it until the full five minutes passed. Still, there was always the chance that she'd pull out some sort of surprise move that he wouldn't be able to counter and would prove sufficient to finish him and, therefore, he could not allow himself to believe completely in his ability to defend. Instead, he would remain ready to modify his defense the moment he detected a change from her current taijutsu barrage.

"Not bad, Xander! You've managed to put up a good defense against me!" Anko said with a smile on her face consistent with someone who held the winning hand and knew it, "However, here is where it ends!"

It was then with as much warning as a sniper's bullet to the back of the head, she broke off her taijutsu and leapt back a good fifteen paces from him. Surprised at this, he was left wondering what in the world she intended to do now so close to the end and why she thought it would bring her victory over him.

"KANASHIBARI NO JUTSU!!" Anko declared and, before he could try and evade the attack, fear unlike anything he had experienced before hand suddenly took hold of his body.

He knew there was nothing to be so afraid about, not really, but the fear was still there and every time he blinked, an image sprang into his mind that reinforced it. It was an image that haunted his dreams from time to time, usually when he and the gang had just barely managed to dodge serious injury or the end of the world. It was an image of the members of the Scooby gang lying still on the ground in any area devastated by battle, dead. What made it worse, though, was that in his dreams he stands in the middle of it all, untouched and unharmed, with an overwhelming feeling of guilt inside of him as though their deaths were his fault alone. In his dreams, this was usually the point where he woke up denying that he had anything to do with it, repeating over and over again that he'd never harm his friends, but that would not be happening now. He was awake and while the image in his head only came to the forefront when he blinked, it was enough to keep him in the grip of the paralysis technique.

"Time to say goodbye, Xander! It's **OVER!**" Anko yelled as she surged forward to deliver the attack that would put him down for good costing him the match.

NO!

He would not lose like **this!**

He would not lose while tormented by the nightmare of his dead friends and his guilt at bringing about their deaths!

_I WILL NOT LOSE! NOT NOW OR __**EVER AGAIN!**_ He roared from within his mind as he threw all his will into breaking through the jutsu that had me in its grasp.

For a moment it looked as though the will of one Uchiha Xander would not be enough to prevail, but just as Anko's potent punch was about to slam into his stomach, he felt the genjutsu shatter and he didn't waste one second acting. With speed of necessity he sidestepped her punch, just as it was about to hit, and then grabbed the threatening arm, thus turning her attack against her by throwing her to the ground. Knowing how skilled Jounin were, it was likely that the only reason she hit the ground instead of landing on her feet like a cat was because she hadn't expected him to escape her genjutsu move. Still, by his estimate, the match had just passed the five minute mark and that meant victory was his for the third time in a row.

_Considering how my luck usually runs, the Bad Luck Express is probably heading this way right now with plans to run me over __**multiple**__ times!_ He thought believing that his unusual good luck could only be followed by unusual bad luck, _Somebody must've put one helluva bad curse jutsu on me when I was born for my life to be like this!_

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_**The Training Ground, One Minute Later, Anko's Perspective**_

_He might be a novice, but if he's this good as an amateur then with a little time and some training from me, he'll become one of the best ninja Konoha has._ Anko thought as she finished dusting off her jacket, _Looks like Xander might be just what my team needs to finally move up in the world._

She was just about to gather the team together to officially announce that they were a team when she heard the sounds of a large group of people approaching the training area. It was odd since she was fairly certain she had requested that the area be blocked off from other ninjas until the test was done, since she wanted to be sure that Xander could focus entirely on his matches without distractions so she could get an accurate read on his abilities and skills. While it was true that the test was over, no one should have made it here until after she ordered the signs removed. Turning towards the sounds of the steps, she had only a minute to wait before the owners of the footsteps appeared, revealing Hokage-sama, Team Kurenai and Team Kakashi. While she hadn't seen anything on their way up to the training area to hint that something was amiss, she had a hard time believing that it was mere chance that those two teams made it past the signs. Considering Hokage-sama's presence, she had a pretty strong feeling that he had something to do with this and that meant putting up a fight would probably just make things worse.

"It would appear, Anko, that your team is coming together quite nicely despite the new member." The Third said with a smile as he puffed on his pipe a bit.

"You were watching?" She asked with some surprise before her mind reminded her of the observation post that was nearby.

"Indeed we were. True, I only arrived in time to see the second match, but thankfully the images the hidden cameras were taking in had been recorded." He replied as though it was perfectly natural, "I must say that young Xander surprised even me with a few of his strategies."

"No kidding! The way he managed to snag the ribbon from Big Sis was awesome!" Kiba exclaimed, clearly happy at someone managing to beat his sister in such an original way.

"I heard that, brat!" Hana growled as she walked up beside her and Xander, "Hope you like double chores, 'cause after I tell Hahaoya who stole that extra helping of meat from the kitchen, that's what you're going to get!"

"NANI?!" Kiba exclaimed as his mind finally caught up with his mouth, letting him know how badly he'd put his foot in it, "C-c'mon Sis! Can't we talk about this?"

Judging from the look on the Inuzuka woman's face, it didn't look like there'd be any forgiveness from her anytime soon. Maybe later once Hana had a chance to cool down a bit, but at the moment she was pissed enough about her loss to Xander that Kiba rubbing her nose in it only made things worse. It was one of the problems she hoped that Xander would be able to help her fix with the team, since it was Hana's temper that had kept her from becoming a chuunin thus far in her ninja career.

"That doesn't matter. What I want to know is who you are?" Sasuke said with some hostility in his voice towards Xander, "Where did you come from? Who were your parents?! Answer me!"

"Calm down, Sasuke." Kakashi said, putting a hand on his student's shoulder to reinforce his words, "I'm sure he'll answer your questions if you ask them politely.

"My name is Uchiha Xander and I'm from the state of California in America." Xander replied, sounding a little annoyed at the demands being made of him, "As for the rest, you'll have to give me a reason to trust you with that before I say anything."

That answer definitely didn't go over well with the young man, who was soon to be formerly referred to as the sole surviving member of the Uchiha clan, not that Anko could really blame the boy for wanting to know more about the boy who showed up out of nowhere to become part of his clan. Still, it was up to Xander when, where and to whom he chose to reveal his past to and no one else had the right to force him. If the lone wolf Uchiha tried to press matters further, she would back up the newest member of her team. Assuming, of course, that Kakashi was unable to force the broody member of his team to reign in his curiosity.

It looked like a close call but thankfully Sasuke decided that causing a scene in front of this many people would not be in his best interests. Of course that didn't stop the number one rookie of his class from glaring at Xander like a hated rival with those eyes of his. However everyone's attention was temporarily taken off of Xander when, from the sky above, Xander's partner, Ava, descended from above to perch on the American Uchiha's shoulder. While the bird had not done anything overly impressive, she had been a bit interested in how he had gotten the eagle hawk to delay Hana's dogs the way it had. She hadn't heard any verbal commands like Hana often used, nor had she seen any hand signals that could be interpreted as commands. It left her puzzled and, if there was one thing that could annoy her like nothing else until she solved it, it was a puzzle.

Unlike most puzzles, though, her first clue would be all she needed to piece the rest of it together.

As though something was yelling in his ear like a foghorn, Xander suddenly winced before shooting a moderately annoyed glare at Ava.

"Dammit, Ava! You'll get your freakin' payment when we're done here and not a moment sooner!" Xander snapped at the bird that if one looked at it just right seemed to have an angry yet stubborn look on its face.

Xander's statement earned a few odd looks at him, especially from the members of the Inuzuka clan who had the best chance of understanding what was going on, but he was oblivious to it as Ava let out a sharp cry at her partner. This was accompanied by another painful 'someone-just-screamed-in-my-ear' look on the new shinobi's face and definitely didn't improve his feelings toward the eagle hawk one little bit.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say! I'll up it to two rabbits and a mouse if you'll just be a little more patient alright." Xander growled at the avian animal, which looked completely victorious.

"You can talk to your bird?" Sakura asked with some curiosity, indicating that she was even worse when it came to a puzzle or a problem.

"Not exactly talk. More like telepathy, really. I can send my thoughts right into her mind and tell her what I want her to do." Xander replied thinking nothing of revealing the secret connection he had with Ava amongst people who were more or less strangers, "She can't quite talk back to me mentally yet, though. Usually she takes memories of similar situations and uses them to get her point across. As you probably guessed, the point she was trying to get across right now was that she wanted the food I promised her at the beginning of this so she'd help me win."

"You mean she won't help you if you just ask her?" Naruto asked, probably wondering why a friend wouldn't just help him out of kindness.

"Unfortunately, no. She's a stingy old feather duster that won't do anything I say unless I make it worth her time." Xander replied snarkily at his feathered partner before his face scrunched up in a wince once more letting everyone know what Ava's opinion was on her partner's comments.

"Haven't you two been together for awhile?" Kiba asked with some confusion at the relationship between Xander and Ava.

"Only a couple of weeks. I rescued her from a bunch of rockheads in the country of Earth who were torturing her to entertain the masses!" Xander growled making it clear that he didn't approve of such side shows one bit, "After me and Kaede did our best to fix her up, Ava indicated that she wanted to come with me. She wouldn't take no for an answer, so I did and here we are."

"Who is this Kaede?" Kakashi asked with mild interest.

This caused a somewhat delayed response in Xander making her wonder what it was about the woman who helped him heal Ava that caused him to hesitate.

"Just some old lady who didn't like what those jerks running the side show were doing to Ava any more than I did," he replied with a firm face of 'leave-it-at-that'. "She was nice enough to give me an' beakface here a place to hide after my daring rescue. I hope she's okay and didn't get into any trouble after we left."

"As long as she was careful and didn't do anything suspicious, I'm sure she's fine Xander." Anko said, deciding that it was time to bring the little Q&A session to a close, "Now that the test's over, you better get down to the market district and give Ava her payment before she popping a blood vessel in your brain. As for you two girls, you can have the rest of the afternoon off. We'll meet up at the academy this evening to plan out our training sessions. Dismissed!"

Seeing Hana and Ayeka approach Xander before he could leave, she hoped that they planned on officially welcoming him onto the team. After all, if they were going to be working together from here on out, it'd be best for teamwork's sake if they could at least behave civilly towards each other.

"Welcome to Team Anko, Xander-san!" Ayeka said with a smile before delivering one helluva slap across the Uchiha's right cheek.

"Yeah! See you later, Wannabe!" Hana added soon after before delivering solid punch to the young man's gut.

With Xander bent over slightly and Ava screeching angrily after the two female ninja, Anko seriously began to wonder if Hokage-sama hadn't just made things worse by adding the newbie to her team.

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	8. The Daily Routine

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials featured in this fanfic. They are the sole property of their creators and associated companies. I am making no money off of this so a lawsuit would be pointless so you'd best take your hands away from the speed dial buttons Mr. Whedon and Mr. Kishimoto.

Note: This is to all you canon-mongers out there who look at any fan fiction that deviates from the established canon of a show, movie, comic or game as heresy. I can only state that while I will do my best to stay as close to official canon as I can I will **NOT** compromise the story I wish to tell unless I am given a **VERY** good reason. Therefore if you spot any facts from either BtVS, Naruto or anything else that shows up in this fan fiction that is a mistake or only half wrong this is the reason why. While I can understand your dedication to BtVS and Naruto you should keep in mind that fanfic by its very nature is supposed to alter/twist canon facts into something else. Please keep this in mind should you choose to review my fanfics. Thank you.

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_**Three Days Later, Mishima Household, Morning**_

_Well I think I've made Xander-sama suffer enough!_ Ayeka as she entered her room, fresh from a perfectly balanced breakfast, _Time to start showing him why I'd be perfect as his wife!_

While it was true that she'd been pissed at him after the test, the past few days had given her time to think things over and, in the end, she had to concede that **maybe** she shouldn't have taken his words so seriously. Still, what was done was done and there was no sense dwelling over past defeats when there were new victories to be had. After all, if her guess was correct, a golden opportunity had just been dropped into her lap to take a big step up in social status in Konoha. Her friends might have made fun of her for it, but there was nothing wrong with wanting to improve your position in life and when shooting for a goal, it only made sense to aim as high as you could. In her case she was aiming to become the newest member of the famous Uchiha clan before the end of the summer, if not sooner. True, the clan numbered only two at the moment, but it still had plenty of prestige and name recognition going for it both in the country of Fire and elsewhere. A major stain had been put on it thanks to that traitor Itachi, but she was confident that with a little PR and some time, she and Xander-sama could wipe that away. He was pretty good for someone who'd never gone through the academy and he definitely wasn't lacking the looks department either from where she was standing.

_In fact I might have to shorten my plan a little if I want to snag him before every other girl his age in Konoha makes a play for him._ She thought as she shucked her PJs and began perusing her wardrobe for just the right combination of practicality and seduction potential, _It's true that there aren't that many who could pose a threat to someone of my __**obvious**__ beauty and allure, but better to play it safe until I know the rankings._

By rankings she meant the ones who Xander-sama actually showed an interest in and the degree of that interest would determine which young women she had to watch out for. Once she made up a top five, she could begin to covertly sabotage any efforts the tramps made to catch the new Uchiha in their nets of seduction, thus keeping her in the lead position.

Finishing her selection of clothing, she began to lay it out on her bed, reviewing the reasons behind each choice to make sure there had been no mistake. First came high cut, lacy panties that, while not Kleenex and butt floss, weren't granny panties either, thus ensuring that if by some chance Xander-sama caught a peek, it would arouse his interest. Next came the strapless push up bra that would generate just the right amount of cleavage while leaving him guessing about what the entire package looked like. The leg wrappings around her shins would be kept to a minimum to allow a good look at her long, toned legs that would be showcased nicely with a mini-skirt like Anko-sensei wore. True, her teacher wore a wire mesh wetsuit under her skirt, but she personally thought it'd be daring and enticing for her to go without her usual protective undergarments for a little while. She could always go back once she was sure her new '**teammate**' was firmly in her grasp, but for now sex appeal was more important than personal protection. As for her top, she decided to go with a backless and sleeveless shirt that dipped enough in the front to show Xander-sama what she had to offer. After that some accessories meant to make her look refined and suitable for life as the wife of Lord Uchiha.

_At least I think he's going to be made Lord._ She thought as her mind stumbled across a potential hole in her plan.

The truth of the matter was that she didn't really know where he stood in terms of the Uchiha clan hierarchy and that could be a bit of problem for her ambition-wise. If his mom, which she had learned from Anko-sensei was Xander-sama's tie to Konoha, was just one of the branch family members, then that'd be where he'd stay. It was a given that Uchiha Sasuke's family had been just a single hop from being considered a part of the head family of the Uchiha clan, so unless Xander-sama **was** a member of the head family, Sasuke still held the superior position. **If,** however, Xander-sama was a member of the head family, then his age and his standing would automatically make him the Lord Uchiha as sole surviving member of that head family. Still it was something she decided she should make sure of just to be on the safe side so, once she got dressed, she'd sneak over to the Uchiha district to confirm the other piece of information she'd gained from Anko-sensei. It had taken some creative wording on her part, but she'd found out that the newly arrived Uchiha had come to Konoha to bury his mother alongside the rest of her family. If she went to the cemetery in the Uchiha district and looked for any signs of disturbed dirt near the graves, then she'd know exactly where her future husband ranked in the pecking order of his clan.

_Please be head family! Please be head family! Please be head family!_ She thought as she began strapping on her kunai, shuriken and throwing needle holsters.

_I'd have to hurry, though._ She thought as she exited her room and headed for the stairs, _Anko-sensei has another 'teamwork' training session planned in an hour and a half. It'd be suspicious if I showed up there late._

Briskly going down the stairs, she saw that her father was about to head to the door for his job at the local prison where they kept the dangerous or the undesirable of Konoha locked away. Not a **bad** job from where she was standing, but as far as the rest of Konoha was concerned, they tended to view the job like most would view sewer workers. It was a job that needed to be done but it was also a job that no one wanted to do due to the environment they'd have to put up with for nine hours straight. Her father had been doing it for as long as she could remember and, according to her mother, it was the only job he could really do after being permanently injured on a mission to Earth Country. As for her mother, her job was a bit more laid back since she was one of the major governing officials that ran Konoha under the Third Hokage. While most people would think that the old man, also called the Professor, ran the village alone, those with half a brain knew otherwise. There were simply too many things that needed doing for one man, even an exceptional ninja like the Third, to do all on his own, so he had a virtual army of subordinates to handle the minor day-to-day things. Still her mom was just a part of the foreign affairs office that primarily dealt with keeping relations between Fire Country and its neighbors more or less amicable. Sadly, with how the ninja world often was, it meant long hours for her mother with little time to spend with her family and only a few weeks here and there that could be defined as 'vacations'.

_I know that it's an important job and that it helps to make sure that it'll be years before another war breaks out, but I still wish she was home more often._ She thought as she grabbed a slice of toast to eat before downing a full glass of orange juice.

"So what has Anko got you doing today, my little princess?" Her father asked her in his usual doting father sort of way.

"More teamwork training. I get the feeling that the Chuunin exams might be starting up soon, so she wants us to be ready in time so she can have us participate." She replied as she watched her mom put a lunch box in her backpack.

While it was true that no official word had been put out as of yet, everyone knew that the Chuunin exams happened roughly every six months, give or take a few weeks. Most genin didn't know about it until their teachers told them about it and, as was the case for team Anko, those genin who'd been around for a while only thought about it every once in a while. After all, it was up to the team leader whether or not to submit their genins for participation in the exams, so it was possible for a team to be reduced to spectators when the event took place. Still, if Anko-sensei was pushing them all so hard to get their teamwork improved, then it was a pretty safe bet that if they managed to get their acts together they'd be submitted for participation in the exam.

"Well be sure to give it your best, Ayeka." Her father said with an encouraging smile, "I know you'll do the family proud."

She had to smile a bit at that since it was nice to hear that her father had such confidence in her skills as a ninja rather than hearing her mom say she should stop wasting her time and begin working towards a career in the foreign affairs department. As far as her mother was concerned, the Mishima family just didn't have what it took to really become skilled ninja and believed that they should focus their efforts on becoming a part of the bureaucracy that governed the village. While that pissed the projectile specialist of team Anko off, she knew that the real reason her mother was pressuring her was because she wanted her little 'yellow rose' to be safe. While she might not show it as much anymore, her mother was the typical overprotective mother that did everything in their power to protect the ones she cared about. While it warmed her heart to know her mother cared about it her, it could get **damn** suffocating when reidou decided to overdo it.

"Maybe. Still, don't be too disappointed if Anko decides to hold you three back again. I'm sure she knows better than anyone where you all are skill-wise." Her mother said as she put scroll after scroll into her bag, "When she thinks you're ready for the Chuunin exam, I'm sure she'll submit your names to Hokage-sama."

"Hai, hai!" Ayeka said, not even bothering to try and overlook her mother's obvious 'maybe you should try something else' undertones, "Later!"

With that she ran out the front door and, thirty steps later, leapt to the rooftops before heading in the direction of the Uchiha district.

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_**Half an Hour Later, Inuzuka Household, Hana's Perspective**_

"Hana! Time to get up!" Came Inuzuka Tsume's voice from the bottom of the stairs, "You have training to do with Anko-san in an hour!"

"HAI!" Hana yelled back before instantly regretting it as her own yelling had only made her hangover headache that much worse.

Groaning in pain, she rolled over and tried to get back to the painless state that was sleep but had a feeling she wouldn't be able to pull it off. It made her wish she hadn't gone to the bar after the team had split up at the end of Anko's training, but having to deal with **him** for so long had compelled her to unwind a bit. **He** was infuriating by his very presence alone and it only got worse when he somehow messed up one of her attacks when all three of them tried to attack Anko. Considering that from morning until sunset for the past three days they'd been doing their best to improve their teamwork, she almost always left in a seriously bad mood as well as a desire to forget about **him** as soon as possible. Sadly that meant for the past two mornings she had woken up with a nasty hangover, leaving her in a bad mood all morning, much to the annoyance of Anko and her Mom. Anko didn't like it because it hindered the training for a few precious hours while her Mother simply didn't approve of her daughter drinking so much. She knew that both older women had points and normally she would restrict her drinking to weekends when she knew that there wouldn't be any missions or important activities.

**HE,** however, had made it impossible to avoid a visit to the bar!

**Him** and that **KISS** he had given her!

Growling in frustration, she suppressed the urge to claw something into oblivion as best she could, since she knew she'd get into trouble if she wound up shredding her bed sheets again. However it was **so** difficult with that scene replaying in her mind every time her train of thought went past it inside her head that all she wanted to do was scratch it right out of her memory entirely. However since clawing something out of her mind physically would be exceedingly messy, not to mention fatal, she had no choice but to endure it.

"HANA!! Get up **right NOW!**" Yelled her mother at such a decibel level that there was no doubt whatsoever that everyone in the neighborhood had heard.

With a groan of embarrassment, she decided that while it was infinitely preferable to stay in bed and ride out her hangover until it became a little more bearable, she knew her mother would only get louder as well as more violent if she stayed put. Thus, with great reluctance, she tossed her covers off the bed and walked leisurely into the bathroom for a morning shower. Turning it on nice and hot in the hopes of soothing her throbbing head to more bearable levels, she wondered if Anko was going to make them do teamwork training again today. Growling in frustration as the water began to hit her body, she knew it was going to be another bothersome day and would probably mean paying a visit to the tavern **again** after having to put up with Wannabe all day. Deciding that some massaging would be needed along with the hot water, she began to physically loosen up some of her muscles in preparation for a long day of training.

Plus it would make it harder to think of **him** since massage techniques required a degree of focus to be done correctly.

However as she massaged her muscles harder and harder, she realized that it wasn't necessarily the hangover or the disastrous training sessions that bothered her to this degree.

It was that she might have actually, maybe, **enjoyed** the kiss he'd given her.

It was ludicrous! It was **INSANE!** It was the stuff of nightmares!

However, every single time she reviewed her thoughts and emotions of the event, she couldn't help but concede that she hadn't frozen up just from the shock, but also because of how good it made her feel. Of course when it had been revealed to be a tactic on Wannabe's part to get her ribbon, any positive feelings the kiss might have produced had been burned to ashes in a nanosecond. Three days later, though, the feelings returned each time she saw him or recalled the event in question leaving her mind in conflict with itself. Half of her still wanted to pound Wannabe back into the hospital while another part of her wondered if an encore of that kiss would feel as good. Growling in frustration, it wasn't until she a jolt of pain went through her thigh that she realized she had accidentally massaged a little **too** hard. Shaking her head a little, she changed her massage technique on that area to undo the damage she'd done with her distracted thoughts.

_This is bullshit! I don't even like the guy!_ She thought angrily as she finished washing off the soap she'd used, _He's overconfident! His techniques are all over the place from basic academy crap to stuff only Jounin should be able to do! He treats __**everything**__ like it's some kind of __**joke!**_

It bothered her to no end that someone who just showed up out of nowhere, with no official training, could just be put on her team without her consent. Wufei might have been a lazy ass shinobi, but at least he'd gone through the academy just like everyone else had and **earned** his forehead protector. There was no telling how Wannabe got his or where he learned the jutsus he did! They should have sent him through the academy like everyone else!

_Instead he's being given some kind of special treatment just because he's an Uchiha!_ She thought with anger as she stepped out of the shower and began to towel off, _Those idiots aren't so special! They couldn't even see a killer in their clan when he was right in front of them!_

Stomping out of the bathroom back into her bedroom, she almost didn't hear the door open until she heard her mother gasp in surprise.

"INUZUKA HANA!! Put some clothes on!!" Her mom bellowed before grabbing the nearest piece of cloth she could find, a bed sheet, and wrapped it around her daughter's nude form, "What were you think prancing around like that in front of the window?!"

"I was thinking it was **my** room and I can do whatever **I** damn well please in it!" Hana replied, deciding to humor her mother for the time being, "As for walking in front of the window, you don't have to worry a bit. I've already kicked the ass of every pervert in Konoha who's tried to sneak a peek. They know that doing the peeping tom thing with me isn't good for their health."

"Maybe all the ones who live here know that looking through your window in the window is a sure way to end up in the hospital, but what about all the people just passing through?" Her mother asked with disapproval clearly in her voice, "I've even heard that that perverted old man, Jiraya, is in the area! So if you're not going to stop walking around the room naked, just do your momma favor and at least make sure the blinds are closed!"

"Hai! Hai!" She said, conceding that if such a well-known pervert and master peeping tom was around, she couldn't afford to take things lightly anymore.

Naturally her mother gave her a skeptical look.

Not entirely unwarranted, since she often did things the older woman didn't approve of and frequently made promises not to do something again.

"I promise, mom. Until this sick old man leaves town for good, I'll make sure my blinds are closed." She said as honestly as she could because, in this instance, she really did mean it.

"Good. Now get dressed and come down for breakfast." Her mother said apparently satisfied that her untamable daughter really did mean it, "You have training with Anko-san in an hour, don't you?"

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_**Guest Room, Kurenai & Anko's Apartment, Same Time, Xander's Perspective**_

_**Thirty Minutes Later**_

_Time for another stress-filled morning!_ He thought to himself as he finished getting dressed and armed, _Hopefully they won't be waiting for me like last time._

One might have thought that rooming with two babes would be every man's dream. They'd have been right for the most part, but only up to a certain point. Both women were definitely easy on the eyes and both of them dressed in casual clothes when not on duty, which consisted of clothes that hugged their curves nicely. Not that he leered or stared at them or anything, but just seeing them move about the apartment was eye candy enough for him. However the downside came one morning when he had thought that they'd both gone out early for some reason and, thus, he wasn't all that careful as to what door he was opening. He would later blame what followed on lingering sleepiness and lack of experience with the sounds of the apartment but in the end it was still an experience with some serious pros and cons. The good part was that he managed to get a serious eyeful of just how fit the female ninja of Konoha were since, inside of the bathroom where he'd been going, was none other than Kurenai toweling herself off from a shower. The bad part, however, was that unlike most women, whose first instinct would be to scream and cover themselves as quickly as possible, Kurenai took a more 'practical' approach. Since he'd already seen her naked there was little point in covering up and since screaming would only draw attention to the situation, she stayed silent. However that didn't mean that she was going to let him off the hook or anything and the fact that he brain was so frozen that he didn't look away certainly didn't help matters.

_Man! I was just lucky that Anko-sensei bought my excuse that the bruise on my face had come from tripping on a loose roof tile!_ He thought as he walked over to the door and knocked loudly three times, _Still, it was an interesting thing to see first thing in the morning!_

"It's safe to come out, Xander." Came the voice of Kurenai from the living room of the apartment.

Sliding the door open, he saw that apparently when they weren't on duty, Kurenai preferred a more 'comfortable' mode of dressing consisting of shorts that looked suspiciously like sweat pants with the legs cut off from mid-thigh down and a tank top that hung over her curves in 'interesting' ways. Deciding that if he noticed those sorts of things that he was way to close to getting his ass kicked again, he decided to channel his thoughts towards safer targets.

"So you off duty today?" He asked as he moved towards the kitchen, thus removing the female ninja's form from his line of sight.

"Hai. Kiba's still working off his punishment for sneaking food, Hinata will be training with her father for most of the day and Shino decided to go bug hunting." Kurenai replied in a casual way before taking a sip from the can in her hand, "We'll be resuming training tomorrow, so don't forget to let me know when you're up 'kay?"

"Sure." He said since he definitely didn't want a repeat of what happened two days ago.

It just wouldn't be good for his health or his reputation.

"So which way are you heading out this time?" She asked partially turning her head in his direction.

"The bathroom window. Chances are they know you're still here and since they can't easily see into the living room, they won't know who's in there with the water on." He replied as he kept breakfast simple with jam on toast and some milk, "I figure that'll give me at least a twenty second head start before one of them spots me hopping the rooftops. Still it should be enough."

"Maybe but don't get cocky. They've had plenty of practice chasing down their chosen prey." Kurenai said with a bit of amusement at his predicament, "They just might surprise you."

"I hope not. Surprises like that I can do without." He said finishing his breakfast and returning to the bedroom.

Piece by piece he put his ninja clothes on along with his equipment pouch. He'd made a slight alteration in that he'd removed the partial facial mask he'd come into town with. It had just gotten too bothersome to have around since his favorite techniques required that his mouth not be obstructed by anything. It'd be embarrassing after all if he tried to use a fire technique and accidentally set his own clothes on fire in the process. Everything else, though, pretty much stayed the same and, with the money he'd gotten as a gift from Hokage-sama to boost the hand full of change he had left over from his trip, he was able to restock his equipment pouch completely. While he had originally thought that all ninja made their own gear, more or less, he found out after the test that not everyone had the knack for it so there were vendors that sold the gear. Much like people who sold guns, though, they each had to have a permit to do so and underwent bi-monthly reviews to make sure they didn't sell the wrong stuff to the wrong people. It had been a bit of surprise, but it made sense since everyone had strengths and weaknesses that they couldn't do anything about.

_I might not be able to forge a decent kunai or mix the right ingredients for a smoke pellet, but everything else I plan on mastering!_ He thought as he put on his forehead protector and making sure it was tied on tight enough.

Stepping out of the bedroom, he froze in his tracks as his eyes fell upon a sight that was both worthy of a place in his 'happy place' database but also potentially a harbinger of pain if he didn't snap out of it quickly. There in the kitchen, reaching for something on a high shelf, was Kurenai and, thanks to what she was doing, her sweatpants/shorts had risen up to show off a shapely ass and at the same time caused the bottom of her chest to peek out of the tank top/halter. With a pinch to his leg that took every bit of willpower he could manage, he snapped himself out of it and took off as quickly as he could for his planned bathroom exit. Slamming the door behind him he let out a sigh of relief since he didn't think that Kurenai had caught him looking which hopefully meant no pounding later.

Hopefully.

Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down, he got up on the edge of the bathtub and ever-so-slowly opened the window above it so he could take a peek outside. He could see the rooftop of the building next door as well as those off to the sides and, from what he could see, they were pretty much empty. However he knew that looking empty and being empty were not necessarily the same thing when it came to a ninja village. Concealing oneself in the environment was a ninja's bread and butter. Fortunately for him, he had a move that would allow him to see through such concealment and hopefully give him a more accurate picture of area.

_Sharingan!_ He thought and in the blink of an eye chakra became as visible to him as smoke.

Looking around, he could see no signs of chakra, whether it be from a living body or from some kind of some kind of jutsu, so with some wariness he slipped through the window and onto the neighboring roof as fast as he could. Not letting up on the speed for even one second, he chose to take a more indirect route to the training grounds since it was a definite possibility that his pursuers for the past two days would be lying in wait along the more common route. It wouldn't take them long though to figure out that he'd slipped by them but, hopefully by then, it'd be too late for them to pursue.

"I really wish that they'd just give up already." He muttered under his breath as he did his best to make his leaps less attention drawing, "Even if they catch me, it's not like I'll automatically agree to go out on a date with them!"

"XANDER-SAMA!!"

Looking behind him he found that not only had his pursuers found him sooner than he had anticipated but they had tripled in number!

Now he didn't just have to worry about girls his own age chasing after him, but women a good three or four years older than him and girls that had just entered their teens as well. When he tried to figure out why ladies from age groups both above and below his own had joined the hunt, he didn't like the answers his mind was coming up with. For the older ladies it was probably a mix between the prestige that comes with joining a noble clan along with the 'perks' that came from dating someone younger. For the younger ones, though, they were probably swept up in the 'coolness' of being the girlfriend of an Uchiha and then had it nailed in place with a schoolgirl crush. They probably had promised themselves that once they were old enough, skilled enough as ninjas and beautiful enough, that they'd marry him. As for the older women, he didn't think the benefits of 'experience' would outweigh the creep factor that he'd probably feel if one of them latched onto him. Channeling more chakra into his legs, he tried to put some more distance between himself and his pursuers but sadly the older women had more experience as ninja as well as a greater amount of chakra within them. As for the younger ones, they quickly displayed their knowledge of all the nooks and crannies of the village, probably discovered playing hide and seek, by popping out all over the place.

_I'd hoped that I wouldn't have to use __**this**__ so soon but it looks like it's the only way!_ He thought as he reached into his equipment pouch extracting three lime green spheres.

Now as most ninja would know, normal smoke bombs were dark in color, said color usually being black or purple, but these were a special blend he'd had the vendor make yesterday morning. It had taking some convincing and explaining of his dilemma, but eventually the guy was able to see things his way. He managed to whip up ten of the spheres with each one guaranteed to work or his money back. So with a throw meant to cover the widest area possible, he tossed the green spheres back at his pursuers before going into overdrive speed wise. As it was he just barely managed to get clear of the green cloud of smoke released from the spheres he'd thrown but the sounds of the women who did wind up getting caught in it brought a smile to his face.

"Scent of thirty year old uncleaned bathroom from hell!" He said with a grin as he imagined how foul the odor must be for his pursuers, "If that doesn't get them off my back, **nothing** will!"

Either the women would be forced to change tactics to avoid another dosage of stink or they'd get pissed enough at him for doing this that they'd direct their lustful attentions elsewhere. While the former would probably give him a heart attack with the number of ways it could make life difficult for him, he was betting on the latter being the more common outcome. After all, if these girls were anything like Buffy and Willow, then stinking up their clothes and their skin like this would be a serious turn off. According to the vender he got them from it would take some serious scrubbing in the bath tub to get the stink off of a person's skin and the clothes would probably need three sessions in the washing machine before they'd be back to normal. Fortunately for him, though, the stink wouldn't cling very long to things like rooftops or metallic objects for more than half an hour before dispersing. Otherwise he might just wind up having to scrub down that entire area himself to get rid of the stench.

With cries of disgust and anger coming from the cloud behind him, he continued on his way towards the training grounds to where his team was probably waiting for him.

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_**Training Grounds, Twenty Minutes Later, Anko's P.O.V**_

"So what happened next?" Anko asked with her cell phone to her ear, "Really! Hahahahahahaha!! Bet you thirty it's never been 'wet', if you know what I mean."

Hearing the person on the other end agree, she had to wonder if she shouldn't do something about it herself. While not completely shameless as a ninja, she also wasn't as stuck up and repressed as some of the other more respectable Jounin in Konoha. Still, she was in a position of responsibility so she couldn't go about abusing that power, since it would only cause trouble for her in the long run. Still, a little fun every now and again couldn't hurt, right? She'd just have to be a little more cunning in how she went about it than usual. For now, though, it'd have to be kept to just fun of the mental variety and since she had a willing partner in crime on the phone it was time to set the stage for phase two.

"Think up something fun for this evening. I'll make sure he won't see it coming or be able to do anything about it." She said before exchanging goodbyes with her fellow felon and ending the call.

It was just in time since, five seconds later, her team showed up with all three of them looking like they were all warmed up and ready for today's training. Hana still looked a little hung over from the drinking she'd probably done last night, but it didn't look like it'd affect her performance all that much. Ayeka, on the other hand, had obviously gone from pissed about losing during her test match with Xander to being determined to seduce him silly. While she knew that the young woman wouldn't go completely indecent with her wardrobe, the blonde would definitely be pushing the envelope again and again until his will was hers. Xander, on the other hand, looked a little winded but otherwise alright and she knew already what that was probably from since she had been there the first morning after he'd moved into the guest room. It was definitely safe to say that the same type of ladies who used to dream of being Uchiha Sasuke's girlfriend were now chasing Xander. From what she'd seen that morning just about every fifteen to sixteen year old girl that wasn't currently attached to a boyfriend now had their sights set on the newly arrived Uchiha. However, if her fellow felon was telling the truth about what she'd seen, then now both the girls older and younger than him were now a part of the Xander hunting party.

_Well at least it should help with his training._ She thought as she prepared to lay out the teamwork test for the day, _Speed, stamina, evasion and concealment training all packed into one hour! Heheheheheh._

"Alright! Listen up you three! The past two days of training have been pitiful!" she said sounding genuinely displeased with the performance of her team, "Even genin fresh from the academy have better teamwork skills than you three! So I've decided to take a page out of Kakashi's book of training methods."

Taking out two bells on strings she promptly tied them to the necklace around her neck before continuing with the explanations.

"The objective of this training session will be to acquire one of these bells. Those that get them will get to eat lunch but the one that doesn't will be tied to that pole over there and be forced to watch." She said pointing over to the three thick wooden poles sticking out of the ground, "And before you ask, yes, I know that one of you will have to be tied to the pole regardless of whether or not you use teamwork, but I suggest you just deal with it. Missions for shinobi aren't always pleasant and they don't always go the way you expect either, so you better get used to the discomfort."

"Now put your lunches over there so we can get started!" she said, crossing her arms across her chest to show them that she meant business.

Watching them all dump their bags over to the side of the posts, she watched as Xander took something out of his equipment pouch and put it next to his lunch bag. She didn't get a very good look at it but she presumed it was something he wouldn't need for the training. Hearing a hawk cry overhead, she watched as Ava came in for a landing on her partner's shoulder before shooting what, for all intents and purposes, looked like a jealous look at Hana and Ayeka. Sure, it was probably just her projecting her own emotions onto the bird, but still she couldn't shake the image of a possessive girlfriend glaring at potential rivals. Shaking her head at the very thought, she waited until all three were back in front of him before she prepared to firing off the proverbial starting pistol.

"Now remember! The whole point of this test is to use teamwork to get these bells from me and you only have until the sun reaches its high point to do it." She said before raising her arm up into the air, "Now **begin!**"

Ayeka was the one to make the first move by throwing a trio of shuriken at her while Hana and Xander began to circle her from opposite sides. No doubt the idea was for Ayeka to pin her down and keep her from moving while the others moved into position to launch a two pronged assault. Not a bad plan and, while they'd tried it before, she could tell that they were being a little more considerate as far being aware of what the others were doing. She could also see that they were attempting to provide openings for their teammates by adjusting their positions in order to force her to adjust her own in order to keep them in sight. A smart move and if they handled it just right, they'd make it very difficult for her to effectively protect the bells from theft.

An improvement from before, that much was sure, but still not enough to get them what they needed.

In a move they probably wouldn't have expected, she whipped out a kunai and charged Ayeka head-on, using her knife to deflect the projectiles the blonde was sending her way. This definitely messed up the plan they had if the look on the Mishima woman's look was anything to go by, along with the almost frantic increase in the projectiles per throw ratio. Hearing Xander and Hana coming up from the rear with Hagane, Ishina and Seirai, she knew it was time to put the next part of her counter offensive into action. She withdrew two smoke bombs from her coat pocket and threw them to the ground, enshrouding both her and Ayeka in darkness.

_HENGE NO JUTSU!_ She thought as she performed the jutsu that would force her students to go beyond simple academy level tactics.

As the smoke cleared, she couldn't help but inwardly laugh at the looks on their faces as they saw that there was now not just one Ayeka, but two. While just about all academy students could perform the transformation technique, the degree of skill in their transformations tended to vary until they gained more experience. In preparation for a move like this, she had even borrowed some of Ayeka's perfume when she wasn't looking so even an Inuzuka's nose would have trouble sniffing out the truth. Deciding she'd best make sure that words matched the image they saw, it was time to pull an Ayeka on them.

"Anko-sensei! I don't know what you're planning but there's no way that anyone could manage to do the henge no jutsu well enough to match **my** beauty," she said, putting as much cockiness and pomp into her words as was necessary.

"While it is true that no stupid transformation could help anyone match **my** good looks, your acting ability needs work, Anko-sensei." Ayeka said with some annoyance at the tactic her sensei was employing, "I might be proud of my dazzling good looks but even I'm not that snobby sounding."

"Don't be so sure of that. Snobby is a pretty accurate description of you." Hana said, sounding annoyed at the turn of events, "But if we can't pick out which is the real Ayeka then we'll just have to go after them both. Let's go, Wannabe!"

_Huh? Well I didn't see that coming._ She thought as Hana came at her while Xander attacked the real Ayeka, _I'd better improvise._

"You can try, dog girl!" She said before throwing a handful of projectiles over a wide area that 'accidentally' also cut off Xander's advance on the blonde Mishima girl.

He knew that a henge no jutsu it was important to maintain one's concentration in order to maintain ones new form, otherwise you'd revert back to your natural form. They all knew that so if she wanted to keep up the charade up, she couldn't allow any of them to do anything that might fulfill the 'break your enemy's concentration' requirement. If that did happen then she'd be right back at square one and they might manage to come up with a workable plan to grab a bell. However Xander showed remarkable evasive and defensive skills as he managed to avoid the ones that wouldn't hit the critical areas while deflecting the ones that would with his own kunai. He'd shown signs of it beforehand, but it was obvious that his little 'morning practices' were helping him sharpen that particular talent quite nicely. Eventually, though, he managed to get by her barrage and, in a surprise move, tackled the real Ayeka to the ground rather than striking her. A well-placed blow could dispel a transformation jutsu but too strong of a blow would wind up putting some distance between the sender and receiver. Normally this wouldn't matter, but in a training session like this it was better to stay close then creating opportunities for some distance to be made. However, by doing so, it pretty much meant that her pretending to be Ayeka was over and done with, since the second Ayeka failed to transform after hitting the ground the truth would be exposed. So without hesitation she cancelled the transformation but that was as far as she got before Hana and her three partners took advantage of the brief pause in her long range assault to close the gap between them.

"Those bells are mine!" Hana said as she and her dogs attacked at once with all evasion routes blocked off.

Waiting until the last moment before Hana made contact, she immediately performed a kawarmi no jutsu, substituting her body for a block of wood. Like clockwork she slipped out of the path of Hana and caused the Inuzuka girl to tackle something other than her intended target. Waiting until the image of herself around the wood disappeared, she decided that a flick on the nose of the hotheaded young lady was called for.

"You won't be getting anything if all it takes to avoid you are academy level techniques." She said sounding like she was almost bored with how things were going.

It was then though that she noticed that both Xander and Ayeka were a little late in getting back into the fight. It had been at least ten seconds since the Uchiha had successfully tackled the blonde Mishima to the ground and it should only have taken four seconds for him to realize that he had chosen the real deal rather than her. Deciding that it would be prudent to take a look to see what was holding them up, she couldn't stop her jaw from dropping or her eyes from widening at the sight she beheld. On his back was Xander, flailing around and trying to gently push Ayeka off of him, but given how the girl was positioned he couldn't find a place to put his hands that would allow him to do so.

Any 'neutral' places that wouldn't offend the blonde or earn him a pounding later, that is.

Ayeka, on the other hand, had her lips locked on his and was doing her best not to be pushed or knocked off anytime soon. Whether she was doing this to fry the young man's brain or because she had been caught up in the heat of the moment Anko wasn't sure. However she couldn't let it continue since the longer the blonde projectile specialist was allowed to go on like this, the harder it'd be to pry her off later. Fortunately for her, she didn't have to lift a finger in order to bring the unscheduled make out session to a halt since Hana soon followed her gaze thus enlightening the untamable woman on the situation.

"AYEKA!! Stop acting like a slut and get your head in the game!!" Hana exclaimed before running over to where her two 'teammates' were lying on the ground.

It was a bit harsher than she would have done, but one solid kick in the stomach from Hana to Ayeka later and the tonsil hockey session was put to an end. Looking at Uchiha Xander, she could tell that his rational mind considered the change a good thing while the hormonal teenager side of him was probably annoyed that it had ended so soon. As for Ayeka, well, that was much more straightforward if a bit troublesome for her since judging from the look on the blonde's face things were about to get ugly.

"HANA! Why'd you go and do that for?!" Ayeka asked angrily as she massaged her side a little where the Inuzuka woman had hit her, "Just when he was starting to get into it, too."

"Get into what?" Xander asked with a little anxiety and incredulousness in his voice, "I just tackled you because I didn't know whether or not you were Anko or not. Then **YOU** kissed **ME**!"

"Oh please! You can't tell me you didn't want it to work out that way." Ayeka said, sounding oh-so-pleased with how things had turned out for the most part, "You knew who you were tackling the entire time. I bet you used your Sharingan for a second and then let dog girl go after Anko-sensei so you could have me all to yourself you sly dog, you!"

"NANI!?" Xander exclaimed as though he had just heard the most unbelievable rumor about himself.

The truth of the situation though was that Xander had probably just not remembered to use his Sharingan in this particular situation. The boy would use it if he actually **thought** about using it, but given how both he and Hana had been so gung ho to both Ayeka's at once, it was likely that it slipped his mind. It was something that she had picked up about him the last few days but didn't think it was serious enough to get on his case about. After all, he had only gotten his Sharingan a few months ago and had only recently begun to use it in combat, so if given time it would become as natural for him to use as an arm or a leg.

_Still, it's given Ayeka the wrong idea and that means that she'll only pursue him even more now that she knows she has his attention._ She thought with a mental sigh as she pictured what the Mishima girl's next move would be.

"You ASSHOLE!" Hana cried angrily as she abandoned her pursuit of her first target in favor of beating on her least favorite teammate, "Just when I was beginning to think you might belong on this team!!"

Before the Uchiha could react, the parter of Hagane, Ishina and Seiri grabbed him by his shirt and threw him with all her strength at the posts fifty yards away. Anko could see that Xander was trying to right himself and land on his feet but, without anything to push off of or adjust his position with, it wasn't easy. Fortunately, though, he was able to land feet first, but wound up stepping on his own lunch bag in the process.

However when his right foot stomped down on his bag, a tsunami of green smoke exploded in all directions, passing over everyone before they could do anything. While the explosion of the green smoke had been shocking enough, the **smell** was almost enough to make her sick to her stomach! In all her years as a ninja for Konoha, she had never once smelled anything as foul and crude as the odor that was assaulting her nose at that very moment. Fortunately a good breeze came along and blew the putrid cloud away, rendering the training grounds clear to see once again.

However there was one thing that didn't move on with the cloud of green smoke and that was the stench it had created.

It was as potent as ever.

"Eeeuuuww! What was that, Xander-sama?" Ayeka asked while pinching her nose shut in an effort to block out some of the smell.

"It was something I had that smoke pellet vendor cook up for me to get those women off my back!" Xander replied, clearly not enjoying the stink anymore then they were, "I figured if chasing me equaled getting stink bombed they'd give up. I never thought I'd be on the receiving end of them, though."

"Yeah, yeah! Real interesting, Wannabe!" Hana said with an almost pained look on her face, "Now how about you tell us why it still stinks around here. The smoke's gone so the smell should be too."

It was then that Xander seemed to connect certain dots together that had him looking distinctly uneasy as well as reluctant to answer.

"Well…that's…that's the thing. To make sure that those girls stopped chasing me, I had the vendor make it so that the stink would get into their skin and clothes." He said while covertly scanning the area around him for escape routes, "It isn't permanent, but you're going to have to do some serious scrubbing and washing to get rid of it."

"NANI!!" She screamed along with all Hana and Ayeka as they imagined how it'd be trying to get back to their homes smelling like this.

While she wasn't at all happy with how things turned out, Anko had to admit that Xander had chosen the right weapon to discourage his morning pursuers. She knew that if she had been among them and gotten submerged in a cloud of stink like that, she'd be upset too. She'd go from upset to angry when she realized that the smell wasn't going to go away on its own anytime soon and would probably have ceased pursuing Xander all together. It also explained why he took them out of his equipment pouch earlier, since it'd only cause problems if he used them during training.

_Now, though, we have to deal with four stinky ninja as well as a village that will catch wind of what transpired here, literally._ She thought as she imagined how this would make her team look in the eyes of other ninja, _NO! It was bad enough when I had two girls that were always at each others throats and one guy who couldn't be bothered to put forth anything more than the minimum amount of effort! But how to solve this problem without letting everyone know Team Anko stinks?_

The answer came to her a moment later when she remembered the terrain around the training grounds as well as where each of the village's stores were. She'd have to be quick to get what she needed and not be seen at the same time, but if she recalled correctly she used to have a knack for stuff like that when she was younger.

_It's our only chance!_ She thought before saying, "You three stay put. I'll be back in five minutes!"

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_**A River Near the Training Grounds, Fifteen Minutes Later, Ayeka's P.O.V**_

_A bar of soap and a river! I think Anko-sensei has seriously gone off the deep end._ Ayeka thought as she uneasily looked about the area to make sure it was as safe as Anko promised it would be, _Those three mutts and that damn bird had better do their jobs as lookouts or I'm personally going to turn them into fur coats and a fluffy pillow!_

Once she was satisfied that her trained eyes and ears couldn't detect any signs of peeping toms or accidental arrivals, she decided that she might as well get it over with sooner rather than later. Finding a spot that would at least provide her with some vegetation cover if she needed it later, she began to carefully take off her clothes and set them down on the ground. Wading into the water, she began to vigorously scrub her body, starting from the top and working towards the bottom with the soap. Inwardly she had to growl a bit at Xander-sama for causing the situation, but she understood why he had to do it in the first place. It was a given that as a rare commodity in the village, an Uchiha would be quite a catch to the woman that could land one. However, since the only Uchiha alive that wasn't a rogue-nin was Uchiha Sasuke, then out of common morality all of the women fifteen and up pretty much left him to those his own age. Now, though, with Xander coming into the picture, the ladies of Konoha had a second choice and that opened up doors for many of them. Now they not only had someone closer enough to their own age that they wouldn't have to worry quite so much about people lecturing them about it. However, what surprised her was that, if she'd heard right, some of those girls **younger** than him were considering pursuing him. Oh, it was probably nothing more than a schoolgirl crush or something else that would die off in a month or two, but it would still be bothersome for her to deal with.

_Still, did he have to come up with such a potent weapon?_ She thought as she took a test sniff of herself to see if she'd gotten rid of the stink yet, only to discover she hadn't, _I've been scrubbing so hard I feel like my skin's going to peel off! I'm probably going to have to moisturize and use some body lotion when I get home to repair all the damage!_

It was as she was bending over to get at her legs that she heard a noise coming from behind her that she was positive couldn't be natural. Her first instinct, of course, was to submerge herself deep into the water so as to provide her with at least some sort of cover. However she stopped herself since she knew that even if she cut off the baka's peep show, he/she'd still have gotten a good look at her naked. While it might have been a rumor at the moment that she was a little too liberal with how she behaved, if word got out about this from someone even a little credible, her chances of marrying into a noble family would be ruined. After all, no noble family would want someone who was the talk of all the town perverts to join them since it would tarnish their good names. So instead she kept acting as though everything was normal while covertly trying to get a good enough look at the culprit so she could identify him/her. Once that was done, she'd terrify the pervert so bad that the very thought of spilling what they saw here would fill them with such fear that they'd wet themselves!

For the first few moments she couldn't get a good enough bead on where the sound was coming from to know where to focus her eyes. Once she did, though, she could make out what looked like a black bandana and, unless she missed her guess, there were also some dark glasses peeking through the bush a dozen meters behind her. Based on that she went through her photographic memory of people she had seen or could identify based on that. Sadly it only narrowed down the possibilities to the older men, since no girl would wear something that could mess their hair up any and few of the guys wore bandanas since the wild 'cool' hair look was in. It also meant that if she wanted to keep the peeping tom quiet, she was going to have to come up with some leverage to use against him, since turning him into a pin cushion could be construed as 'overkill'. She could try and embarrass him somehow, or maybe follow him later and snap a few pictures of his voyeuristic adventures…

However fate was quick to inform her that she was a little too late in the camera department as her acute ears picked up the familiar click and whir of a picture being taken. That pretty much made her decision for her, since someone seeing and then telling everyone about her would be bad enough but having a picture to show for it would be even worse.

She had to act fast!

Forming the hand seals quickly, she used a jutsu that she'd picked up from some dopey Mist ninja that had lost to her in battle.

_Kirigakure no Jutsu!_

As her chakra went to work, she knew she'd only have seconds before the peeping tom figured out what was going on and made a run for it. Thus, with a combination of the walking on water technique and the right amount of chakra in her legs, she charged the pervert's position. She knew that she wasn't all that proficient in taijutsu, that she was more adept with ninjutsu, genjusu and projectiles, but time was of the essence. If she took the time to go back to where her kunai, shuriken and needle holsters were it could be enough for the spy to get away.

_Not going to __**HAPPEN!**_ She thought as she closed the gap between her and the pervert's peeping spot, _I will not have my chances of becoming __**Lady Uchiha**__ ruined by this sicko!!_

The second she managed to pick out a solid form in the mist she went on the offensive with a move meant to cut off the peeping tom's means of escape.

"SUITON, SUIJINHEKI!!" She declared and, using the water beneath her feet for the jutsu, she formed a wall of water around the sicko a good fifteen feet high.

However just like she had planned, the idiot leapt over it in an attempt to escape but, in doing so, exposed himself completely. Cancelling out the hidden mist skill in order to get a better look at her prey and thus discover who had been spying on her, the mists quickly cleared, an indicator of the size and depth of the mist cloud she had made, and she saw for the first time exactly who had been spying on her.

"Ebisu!!" She exclaimed as she recognized the stuck up Jounin who'd been put in charge of Konohamaru's training.

He was also rumored to be a closet pervert.

_Not much of a rumor anymore!_ She thought angrily as she wondered just how many young innocent female ninja this jerk had peeped on, _Time to teach this bastard a lesson and destroy his camera at the same time!_

_Rat, Tiger, Dog, Ox, Hare, Tiger!_ She thought as she formed the seals before declaring, "KATON HOUSENKA NO JUTSU!!"

Unleashing a barrage of fireballs at her prey, she was a little dismayed at the fact that he managed to dodge just about every one of them. The good news was that one of her fireballs managed to nick the strap that was connected to the camera and wrapped around his neck. Less than two seconds later the strap snapped, causing the camera to fall to the ground and, in this moment, she knew she had a golden opportunity to end this right then and there. Abandoning the closet pervert for the time being, she changed her course to intercept the camera before it got soaked in the water. However as the seconds ticked by, she realized that she'd have to dive for it if she wanted to save her blackmail material from getting destroyed. With a dive forward that would have made most professional baseball players envious, she was able to get her hands under the camera before it hit the water. Quickly getting to her feet, she decided it was time for her to lay down the law to this closet pervert and make sure he didn't speak a word about what he'd seen.

"Alright you shitty closet pervert! You've been caught in the act and this is what it's going to cost you to make sure none of the women in this camera find out!" She said in her best impression of a scary, pissed off Anko-sensei, "You won't breath a word of what you saw here today! NOT ONE WORD! Or else you're going to have half the female population of Konoha looking to pound you into the ground!"

"W-what makes you think they'll believe a genin like you over a special Jounin like me?" Ebisu asked with growing confidence after recovering from his initial fear at her words, "For that matter, what makes you think you have anything? For all you know there are only pictures of you in there!"

"They'll believe me because you wrote your name on the camera baka!" She replied, showing him where he'd written his name on the base of the camera, "As for what I have, why don't I take a look?"

Thankfully for her it was a digital camera that let the user see what they'd just shot without having to wait for the film to be developed or required a computer to take a look at them. Haruno Sakura, Hyuuga Hinata, Dog Girl's Mom, Tenten, Yuhi Kurenai and even one of Anko-sensei that had her almost automatically looking down at her chest to compare it with what she saw. Shaking herself out of this particular train of thought, Ayeka felt confident that with ammo like this, Ebisu would have no choice but to give in.

"Tsk, Tsk, Tsk! Ebisu, you've been a naughty boy!" she said scoldingly as she turned the camera's display off, "With a line up like this, I'd say you'd be lucky to have enough for a decent burial after these ladies catch up with you. So what'll it be? Your silence or your life?"

"I-I-I could just destroy that camera now!! Without it you'd have nothing!" The pervert said, no doubt trying to regain the upper hand.

"Maybe. Then again I'm sure you have a lot more pictures stored elsewhere and since I know who you are, I can get them anytime I want." She said not letting her confidence slip even in the slightest, "Do you really want me to find **ALL** your naughty pictures? All I'm asking is that you keep your mouth shut about seeing me naked like this. Is it really worth the twenty or so pics on this one camera?"

For a moment, nothing was said between the two of them, but in the end Ebisu nodded, agreeing that he would keep his silence on what he saw.

"Then can I have my camera back?" Ebisu asked, sounding somewhat hopeful.

"Nope! I'm keeping it as insurance just in case you break your word." She said before getting a slightly homicidal gleam in her eye, "If I hear so much as a peep about me bathing in the river from **ANYONE,** you better hope you're outside the village on mission when it happens! Understand?"

"Hai!" Ebisu replied and, with a blur of motion, the man was gone, once again leaving her alone on the river.

Just for thirty seconds, though, since, when the clock hit thirty, Hana and Anko-sensei appeared ready for a fight only partially dressed. Hana, surprise of surprises, had thong panties and her coat on with the coat half open, showing some bra-less cleavage between the two halves of the zipper. For Anko, the woman at least had the foresight to tie her coat closed but, considering the lack of telling signs of clothes beneath the coat, it was quite possible that she was naked underneath. For a moment she was puzzled by what could have brought them here in such a hurry that they would have forgotten to get completely dressed.

"Ayeka? What happened? We saw signs of a fight." Anko-sensei said as she began looking around for a threat.

"Oh that! I just caught some pervert snapping pictures of me while I was trying to get the stink from Xander-sama's smoke bombs." She said suddenly understanding that her moves might have caught their attentions since they weren't that far away, "Turns out it was that pervert—"

That was as much as she was able to say before the final member of the team, Uchiha Xander, appeared with Ava coming in for a landing shortly afterwards. While she couldn't exactly say that she would have wanted his first glimpse of her perfect body to be like this, she wasn't disappointed with what she saw of his. Muscled and toned in all the right places with his wet hair falling just right to make him look very cool in her eyes. However it was right about then that he got a good look at the rest of them and, like most guys confronted by three women wearing barely anything, he got instant brain freeze. It was, however, a part of him that was below the waist that got the most attention though as an instant tent in his boxers showed just how much he was enjoying the view. Sadly, this also caused Dog Girl and Anko-sensei to jump to conclusions about who she'd been about to name. As a result, before she could stop them and before Xander could probably figure out what was going on, Hana slammed her fist into his stomach before Anko-delivered a thunderous front kick to the Uchiha's chin. As a result, her possible future husband was sent flying down river like a stone skipping on water before the last of his momentum played out causing him to sink to waist level.

_They're going to feel like such morons when I tell them the truth._ She thought with disappointment at her interrupted viewing of her potential husband, _Still, I saw enough to let me know that I'll __**NEVER**__ be disappointed after a night in bed with him!_

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_**Guest Room, Anko and Kurenai's Apartment, Evening, Xander's P.O.V**_

_MAN! This village is going to get me __**KILLED**__ if I don't watch my step!_ He thought with a wince as he stroked his sore jaw.

It had been hours since he'd been dealt the one-two combo by Hana and Anko, but his jaw still felt like it'd been hit only moments ago. Sure, it had gotten all cleared up in the end, but it didn't stop Hana from shooting him looks that practically screamed 'you pervert' or Anko from messing with his head at every opportunity. The Jounin was exceptional at it and half the time he thought that he'd go nuts with all the double meanings and 'up to interpretation' phrases she used throughout the rest of the training. As for Ayeka, while she got on his case a little too about what had happened, he had this itch in the back of his brain telling him that she hadn't minded at all going all nude model for him. However he banished that idea from his mind each time it popped up, which, sadly for him, was frequent since he was a teenage guy and naked women was a potent image. Fortunately the training ended an hour ago once it got too dark for them to do anything significant to improve their teamwork skills. Once done, they all headed home and that pretty much brought him to where he was at the moment, which was wondering if he'd survive tomorrow.

_Anko'll probably work double time tomorrow to make up for the damage my little peep show caused today._ He thought as he slipped into his sweat pants and T-shirt sleeping clothes, _There'll also probably still be a few in the 'hunt Xander' pack tomorrow morning despite my stink bomb maneuver so, all in all, it'll just be another typical day in Konoha._

Once inside his comfortable sleeping clothes, he wondered how he should spend the rest of the evening before hitting the sack. Unlike in Sunnydale, where he would be up until an hour or two past midnight, he had to be asleep by a respectable hour here in Konoha if he wanted to be ready for Anko's training. So he'd have to be asleep by eleven thirty in the evening at the latest if he wanted to get the bare minimum amount of sleep he'd need in order to function tomorrow. That left him with roughly four or so hours to kill before bedtime and, while he supposed he could have spent it exploring Konoha, he didn't want to risk another stampede of available ladies chasing after him. Even with his Sharingan and the few lights that were on at night, there'd be no guarantee that he'd be able to successfully navigate the rooftops or the streets. He didn't fancy leaping into a dangerous situation while his attention was focused on the hunting party behind him.

"Hey Xander! Can you come out here?" Came Anko's voice from the living room.

"What for?" He asked, not looking forward to more of her messing with his head.

"I need to ask you something about this afternoon." She replied, sounding pretty serious about taking with him.

_To obey or not to obey?_ He thought as he weighed the repercussions of disobeying the Jounin leader of the team he was on versus another hour at least of head games, _I never was one to make the smart move before, so why should I start now?_

With great reluctance and dread, he walked to the door and entered the main living room to find Anko and Kurenai there wearing casual wear that instantly had his internal paranoia alarms screaming. Kurenai was in the same outfit she'd been in that morning with the exception that he'd swear an inch had been taken off the shorts that had once been sweat pants. The tank top also looked like it had lost an inch or two but his eyes could not see any sign that she had taken a pair of scissors to it. Still, the way her outfit was showcasing her form left him grateful that his sweats were baggy enough that she wouldn't **see** anything improper should his body betray him. As for Anko, her choice of evening wear was both better and worse than Kurenai's, since it both covered more than shorts and T-Shirt but also left **much** less to the imagination. Sweat pants that might as well have been spandex and a shirt that clung to her upper body like a leotard left him remembering his renouncement of spandex on Halloween. At the moment, though, he believed that renouncing spandex would definitely be better for his health, since he was sure to suffer a heart attack or something equally serious with such potent shocks to his system.

"So what's the what?" He asked, trying to keep the effect they were having on him a secret.

"I've been thinking for a while that maybe the problem we've had with the teamwork training is that we haven't had a clear leader." Anko said, crossing her arms under her chest, making them more pronounced in the process, "While it's true that I am the jounin teacher in charge of the team, I cannot always be there to give orders or save you from trouble. So I've decided that as of tomorrow I'm naming you team leader. I'll still be making all the big decisions, but when it comes to actual dishing out orders in battle or coming up with strategies, I'll leave it up to you unless I think you can't handle it."

_Me?! LEAD!? _He thought as he tried to process what Anko had just told him, _Have these two been hitting the sake or something?_

"I know what you're thinking, but you are the best choice out of the three of you. Hana and Ayeka hate each other too much to take orders if I made one of them leader, but you're a newcomer who they haven't made up their minds about yet." Anko said, as though she had actually read his mind before putting hand on a **nice** leg, "You stand the best chance of being able to take charge without one or both of them putting up a huge fuss over it. Do you accept?"

_Gee! Let me think!_ He thought sarcastically as his mind came up with scenario after scanrio on how this could go pear shaped on him, _On the one hand I could say no and endure more horrendous training sessions like today right up until the Chuunin exam or I could accept the title, bring some order to the team and have to fight the girls on each and every decision I make. Tough choice!_

It was then that Kurenai decided to put in her two cents but he missed the first few words of what she said and it was for a very good reason. With a standard ninja flip she flew over the couch that she'd been sitting on and landed right next to Anko with grace an Olympic athlete would have envied. However the thing that caused his hearing to suddenly shut down though was that, due to the loose nature of her tank top and how short it was, her leap had the unintended effect of causing it to fly up and for a moment, completely expose her ample chest. Needless to say the sight was enough to remind him of when he had accidentally caught her in the shower and that pretty much put his higher reasoning functions into the infamous blue screen of death.

That could explain why he said what he did next.

"—so it's not all that bad Xander." Anko said assumingly, building on what her roommate had just told him, "So will you do it?"

"Sure. No problem." He said as he employed his usual response to a question whenever he had intentionally or unintentionally tuned them out for some reason.

"Good. Then we'll tell Ayeka and Hana about your new position as team leader tomorrow at teamwork training." Anko said with a weird smile, "Now that that's done with, do you want to sit and watch a movie with Kurenai and me? It's a horror movie from America, so you might like it."

It was about then that he realized two things: first that the timing of Kurenai's flashing of her tits was a little convenient and secondly watching a horror flick with two sexily dressed women was potentially hazardous to his health. So, in the end, he decided that discretion would be the better part of valor as well as a swift retreat.

"Nah. I think I'll just read a book in bed then hit the sack early." He said, managing much to his surprise to sound completely casual, "Even if half the girls hunting me have given up after what I did, that still leaves the other half to deal with tomorrow. Then, of course, there's the fact that it's going to be **SO** much fun trying to work with Hana and Ayeka when you spill the beans to them tomorrow. So I think I'd better get all the rest I can get. See ya tomorrow!"

With that he turned around and strolled back into his room before closing the door normally behind him. However, once he was sure he was alone and that the two women weren't eavesdropping, he did two absolutely crucial things: first he promised himself to be extra careful in any situations that had the potential to be humiliating and secondly he looked down before saying two words.

"Down boy!"

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	9. The Chuunin Exam, Begin Phase 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials that appear in this fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials that appear in this fanfic. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I am making no profit off of this whatsoever. I write only for my own personal enjoyment as well as the pleasure of those who enjoy reading my stories.

Note: This is specifically addressed to the reviewer calling him/herself Dragonmaster. Like most writers I do my best to read every review and consider what the reviewer has to say with regards to a single chapter or a fanfic as a whole. However there are some things that I would like to say concerning your past reviews:

1) If you are so offended by people who disregard, twist or neglect the facts considered canon by the majority of Naruto fans then why do you continue to read this fanfic? I know that if I were to come upon a fanfic in which the author to unfeasible liberties with canon facts I would do no more than submit a single review stating my opinion and then leave that story behind for something more to my liking. It does not make sense to continue reading something if the end result is that it is going to upset you thus spoiling the whole happy feeling that one is supposed to feel reading fanfic.

2) The reason I do not devote a great deal of time and effort researching canon facts before writing a fanfic is simply because I do not see the point of working myself that hard. I am not making any money off of writing fanfics nor do I believe I can get a job with some reputable company by writing these stories. This is a hobby for me, a fun little thing to do in my free time, so while I will put **some** effort into looking up facts and watching episodes I will not spend more than a week confirming the veracity of my source material. If I tried to do any more than that it would start being less like a hobby and more like a research paper for university. I was never a big fan of learning or school so turning something that was supposed to be fun into a research project would kill whatever enjoyment I might have had.

3) While I know that the final choice is up to you I would greatly appreciate it if in the future you would shorten your reviews and focus on the key points: Did I like what I read? Do I have any suggestions on where the author should go with the plot? Things like that. If you wish to do anything longer please send it to me in the form of a email rather than take up space amongst the rest of the reviews.

Now on with the show…

&

_**The Rooftops of Konoha, Two Days Later**_

_Well, we aren't the A Team or anything, but at least we're making __**some**__ progress._ Xander thought to himself as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop, mixing in a few acrobatics along the way.

Still, some progress didn't equal great progress, but at least they still had about a week before the Chuunin exams were supposed to start. It had been something he'd confronted Anko-sensei about yesterday (when she wasn't trying to fry his brain with double entendres), since he wanted to know how much time he had to work with. According to her, it had been roughly the day after he'd been tossed in the hospital by Ahou-sama that she'd been summoned by Hokage-sama and given the news. During that meeting, Sarutobi-sama had said she'd have two weeks to whip him into shape in time for the Chuunin exam. By his mental calculations, they now had seven days left before they'd have to show up for the first phase of the exam. When he'd attempted to find out what that first phase was, Anko said she honestly didn't know since she wasn't a part of the exam anymore now that he was on her team. He'd been given a few examples, like a written test, a series of jutsus he had to perform in a certain amount of time and an obstacle course, but there was no way of knowing which one would be used this time around. He'd just have to use the time he had with Ayeka and Hana to the fullest, hoping the entire time that when the day finally arrived they'd at least look like a team, if not act like one.

So far the training sessions, they'd had since he'd been named team leader had met with mixed success but Anko hadn't yelled at them much, so it couldn't have been too bad. On Ayeka's side of things, she followed each of his orders immediately and to the letter during every scenario that they'd been put through. Personally, he figured this had more to do with her desire to marry him than actually having confidence in his leadership abilities. The fact that she'd packed an extra bento box for him in her backpack only further reinforced this assessment of her motives. Fortunately there was no repeat of the infamous kissing incident as of yet since every time the lady from the Mishima family stayed close to him for too long, Ava would swoop down and throw a fit. Ayeka hadn't been hurt or anything, but it had been enough to discourage the blonde from trying to cozy up to him for a short time. As for Hana, she was pretty much at the other end of the spectrum, questioning every order he gave and generally doing whatever she pleased when the training scenario started. Most of the time he was able to adjust his orders to accommodate the way the Inuzuka woman fought but Anko-sensei still had a few harsh words for the feral woman. It had only been yesterday evening that they'd really acted as one but that might have more to do with Anko threatening to speak to Hana's mother rather than anything on his part.

Today, though, their training time had been cut in half since Anko knew there'd be an assembly call for all Jounin team leaders to discuss who'd be submitted for the Chuunin exam. It was a fairly regular thing since the teachers would know whether or not their team was ready for such an event or needed more time to gain both experience as well as strength. Then, of course, there were the usual reasons why Team Anko had been held back for the past three years. For Ayeka it had been the blonde's obsession with looking perfect at all times and for Hana it had been her inability to find non-physical ways to deal with guys trying to get fresh with her. Every single time the Chuunin exams were held, something happened to get Team Anko held back or removed from consideration by the ruling council of Konoha. Now, though, thanks to Hokage-sama having a special interest in everything, it was pretty much a sure thing that their team would be one of the ones submitted to participate in the exam. If something truly scandalous or disastrous happened, then it might be enough to get the ruling council to throw their weight around and remove them but otherwise it was a done deal.

So, while the rest of the team did their own thing, he had decided that he needed to have a little sit down chat with his cousin, Sasuke. The thirteen year old was his only living relative that wasn't a psycho-killer or a corpse buried in the clan cemetery. If he kept putting off the talk, it would only make things harder when they finally did decide to chat and he had a feeling that both of them wouldn't be able to afford too many distractions in the weeks ahead. He wasn't sure what he'd tell the young kid, how much of the truth he'd spill, but he knew that he would at least have to tell Sasuke his mother's name. It would be both a sign of trust on his part and would prevent the serious genin from snooping around and coming to his own conclusions from the bits of evidence uncovered. With that in mind, Xander was heading in the direction of where Team 7's, aka Team Kakashi, last assignment was in the hope that he'd be able to meet up with the moody cousin.

He was about to change directions slightly when he heard the rumbling of a stampede of feet a short distance away and worried for a moment that the few newly teenaged girls might have caught his scent. However, as the sounds became clearer, he could tell that it was a mix of both male and female panic that he was hearing with the sound of some devastating force catching up to them quickly. For a moment he supposed it could just be a group of kids playing or maybe one of Hana's mutts having fun with some people, but whatever the case his curiosity was peaked. Changing course, the sound cut off as he reached the halfway point and he wondered for a moment if the game of terror tag had come to an abrupt end. Picking up the pace a little, Xander was able to hear the words 'why you' and they sounded like had come from Sasuke's teammate, Naruto. When he'd first met the blonde haired, orange-clad kid, he'd seen a lot of similarities with himself but there'd also been something else that he hadn't been able to identify. It was an unsettled feeling within him, a feeling of something stirring, and that had made him want to leave the area, if only to rid himself of that odd feeling. He hadn't known what the cause had been and he didn't think it was Naruto _per se,_ but it had been unpleasant enough a sensation that he didn't like feeling it. It almost made him desire to slow down a bit, but the idea of one of his cousin's teammates being in some kind of trouble pushed any hesitation from his mind. Any friend of Sasuke's was a friend of his and, as a side bonus, saving the day might make his cousin lighten up a little around him, making any sit down chat that much easier. So, picking up speed, he arrived at the scene to find two unknown ninja, a blonde girl and some guy wearing pajamas, roughing up a kid with a weird hat and long scarf. Looking at their forehead protectors, Xander identified them as being from the hidden village of Sand, who were tentative allies of Konoha.

However, judging from the way that Naruto was flat on his back and Pajama-boy was grinning like a schoolyard bully, it was clear that someone needed to be taught some manners.

"Konoha's genins are weak." Pajama-boy said, clearly not impressed by Naruto's rescue attempt.

This pissed him off but, at the same time, his rational mind was strong enough to remind him that turning the jerk into a pincushion with kunai would not be a smart move. The bully might not be getting into his good books anytime soon but he was still from a nation allied with Konoha, so outright kicking the guy's butt was not an option. It'd have to be something a little more subtle and something that could be covered up as an accident or something, just in case. Fortunately for him, though, there was a branch from a tree up ahead that had been broken off halfway and so, with a quick grab, he managed to acquire a toothpick-sized splinter. It wasn't as good as a throwing needle but he could easily claim that it was a toothpick and that it had just **slipped** from his hand rather than being purposefully thrown. Looking back towards the source of the conflict, he saw that he was just in time because it looked like Pajama-boy was about to lay a serious bucket of pain on the kid he was holding by the scarf. With speed and precision born of hours upon hours of training, he threw the splinter/needle at the jerk's punching arm, aiming for a nerve cluster near the wrist. It was only when he was coming in for a landing on a fence that lay on the edge of the road that he noticed another projectile heading for the asshole's gripping arm. Between the two hits, not only was the little kid released but his splinter had definitely aggravated the cluster he'd been aiming for causing the idiot to double grimace in pain. Looking to the source of the second projectile, a small rock, he saw that apparently he and his cousin thought alike since Sasuke was sitting casually on a tree with a second volley of stone ready to go.

"What do you think you're doing in another's village?" Sasuke asked, tossing his second shot up and down in his left hand.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura exclaimed with joy and more than a little 'I **SO** have a crush on him' in her voice.

"Being an asshole from the looks of things." He replied as he landed on the fence and used a light version of the tree climbing exercise to keep from falling off, "But then again, that's just my opinion."

Standing straight up with his arms crossed over his chest, he was only half disappointed when none of the ladies screamed his name but, unless he was mistaken, the blonde girl from the hidden village of Sand definitely had her hunk evaluator aimed at him. She was pretty hot too but he did his best to keep his face just friendly and not flirty, since he already had enough trouble with the ladies of Konoha to want to add a Sand ninja to the mix.

"Get lost." Was all Sasuke said before crushing the rock he had in his hand into sand.

"Or do you want to face **two** Uchiha instead of just one?" Xander asked before activating his sharingan and staring the bully down.

"Ahhhh! They're **SO** cool!" Sakura said with her usual fangirl voice and Xander was somewhat happy that she'd thought to include him into the mix.

"Well maybe I do want a crack at you two! Come down here now!" Pajama-boy said, sounding seriously displeased and only a little concerned, "I hate people like you two who think they're so clever."

With those words, the bully pulled on a strip of cloth that had been keeping the bundle he'd had on his back causing it to fall to the ground. This move apparently bothered the blonde beauty big time as her up until now 'I am not getting involved' stance broke down.

"Hey! You're going to use Karasu?" She asked with surprise and some anxiety.

_Damn! I don't know what's in that bundle of cloth but if it's enough to get his own teammate nervous, things could get complicated._ He thought before the feeling that usually manifested in the presence of Naruto seemed to double making it difficult to keep his discomfort from showing on his face.

"Kankuro, stop." Came a new voice and like his instincts told him he looked to the source.

Hanging upside down on a tree branch behind Sasuke was a redheaded boy about Naruto's ago that also appeared to be from the hidden village of Sand. However there was something about this kid that was making the stirring feeling he usually felt around Naruto worsen to the point of it doing backflips.

And the eyes…

This guys eyes spoke of barely maintained sanity and an inner demon that threatened to swallow him whole every time he blinked.

Not a pleasant fellow **at ALL**.

"You're a disgrace to our village." The boy said in a flat tone that held virtually no emotion aside from traces of hostility.

Whoever this kid was, it was enough to make Kakuro the Pajama-boy back down instantly and put on his best 'I was just playing with them' look. Given how the blonde babe hadn't had so much as a single bit of influence over the black clad bully, it implied that this boy was either surprisingly powerful or very skilled. Perhaps both. Right then and there, Xander made a mental note to keep an eye on this kid for the next while.

"G-Gaara…" Kankuro said, sounding like he was about to put innocent words to use to match his guiltless expression, "It's not my fault. These guys started it."

"Shut up." Gaara said in a tone that threatened more than just violence of defied, "I'll kill you."

"Alright, alright, I was at fault here." Kankuro quickly blurted out with the beginnings of a fearful sweat beginning to show, "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."

_What kind of team leader is this Gaara? _Xander thought as the situation was beginning to look like one Sand ninja killing another, _To be willing to kill his own teammate over something as little as this. This guy __**is NOT**__ playing with a full deck!_

This, however, seemed to lower the growing killing intent coming from the kid carrying the stone gourd on his back and, correspondingly, the stirring feeling within him also died down to more manageable levels. Given the situation, was it the chakra or killing intent from Gaara and Naruto that was causing him to feel something moving inside of him? Xander didn't know and he wasn't sure he wanted to know what this feeling was, given all the possibilities from research sessions with Giles gave him.

"Excuse them, you guys." Gaara said in a monotonal fashion.

Then, in a move he had never quite seen anything like, Gaara appeared to turn into sand before reappearing at the feet of his teammates.

"Let's go. We didn't come here to fool around." Gaara said with a commanding tone of voice.

"I know." Kankuro said sounding completely cowed by the presence of his team leader even though he was easily a head taller.

Gaara was definitely more than he appeared to be.

The three Sand ninja were about to walk off when Sakura, ever the fact seeker, chose to stop them.

"Wait up." Said the pink-haired member of Team 7.

"What is it?" asked the blonde babe as her team came to a halt.

"Judging from your forehead protectors, you're ninjas from the Hidden Village of the Sand, right?" Sakura asked with a bit of steel in her voice, "The country of Fire and the Country of Wind have an alliance, but a treaty prevents ninja from entering each other's countries without permission. State your purpose. Depending on your reasons I'll…"

"'What you're looking for is closer to you than you think'," was the cryptic response the Golden Goddess gave. "You don't know anything, do you?"

Reaching into her equipment pouch, the blonde pulled out a card with her picture on it and showed it to everyone.

"This is a traffic pass. As you guessed, we're genins of the Hidden Village of the Sand from the Country of Wind. We came to this village to take the Chuunin selection exam." The woman explained with a somewhat smug smile on her face.

"Chuunin selection exam?" Naruto asked, clearly not having a clue what it was or that it was scheduled to happen soon, "What's a Chuunin selection exam?"

"You all must really not know." Golden girl said, definitely rubbing Uzumaki's nose in his lack of knowledge.

"Basically, Naruto, it's a test that if you pass it you get promoted from genin to chuunin." Xander explained, not wanting the ignorance of the kid to hang in the air too long, "Once you're promoted, you get additional duties, responsibilities and perks that go along with being a Chuunin level ninja."

"Really? Then I should take it, too." Naruto said definitely liking the idea of being promoted to Chuunin.

It was as the Sand ninja began to move away that another member of Team 7 decided to ask a question in the form of his cousin, Sasuke. The moody relative of his hoped down from his tree perch before taking on a commanding tone of his own.

"Hey, you there." Sasuke said in a tone that pierced through the air like a kunai, "What's your name?"

This caused only the blonde beauty to turn around and, judging by the blush-smile combo on her face, it was clear that she was excited at being singled out by Sasuke.

"Me?" she asked with a little uncertainty.

"No, the one next to you with the gourd." Sasuke replied, pointing out Gaara as the one he wanted an answer from.

This was met with some surprise by the Sand ninja, as well as some disappointment from the girl, but a few seconds later the creepy one gave an answer.

"Gaara of the Desert." The redhead replied with zero emotion in his voice, "I am also interested in you and the other one. What are your names?"

_Great, I got a potential headcase interested in me._ He thought as he wondered whether or not he should give out his name.

"Uchiha Sasuke." His cousin replied, obviously believing that he was the top dog in the exchange.

_Well I can't leave him out there by himself._ He thought before saying, "Uchiha Xander."

For a moment a still wind blew between the three of them and the possibility for a fight breaking out once more emerged along with the stirring within him. Fortunately, the number one noisy ninja of Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto, chose that moment to butt in and break the mood completely.

"Hey, hey, what about me?" Naruto asked, definitely wanting to be included in.

"I'm not interested." Gaara replied bluntly, making it clear that the blonde boy didn't even provoke minimal interest in him.

With that the three Sand ninja leapt away leaving only Team 7, the three academy aged kids and himself standing in the street. With this first peek at the sort of people that Team Anko might be facing in the exam at some point he knew now more than ever that he needed to work twice as hard to get their teamwork in top form. Whatever Gaara was it was definitely not a kid and his gut feeling surrounding the boy was right he, Hana and Ayeka would need every edge they could get if they were going to come out on top.

_All that can wait for the time being, though._ He thought as he began to turn towards his cousin, _Now that that is over with, it's time to get Sasuke someplace a little more private so that we can talk._

However, before he could open his mouth to give voice to his thoughts, his cousin leapt to a tree branch and then to a rooftop before disappearing from sight entirely. He knew that it was at least possible for him to chase after the young man but, given Sasuke's hostility towards him when they first met and the recent scene, it'd probably make any conversation awkward. He'd wait until there was a better time to talk about what they'd need to talk about if either of them was going to move on and place their focus where it needed to be.

Turning the remaining members of Team 7, he could see that Naruto was still pissed about being ignored in favor of his Uchiha teammate. Ignored and maybe a little jealous over how little force it took to free the little kid from Kankuro's grasp when compared to his own frontal assault. He could still see the bit of himself in the kid and some startling similarities between his cousin and Deadboy back home. Now all that was needed as someone to play Buffy and the terrible love triangle would be complete between both the Sunnydale party and the Konoha group. It was then that he wondered about the possibility of a love triangle going on between Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura but dismissed it since Broody Junior didn't seem to care about being a teenage heartthrob. As for Naruto liking Sakura…well he'd have to see about that before coming to any sort of conclusions.

_Better do something to life Uzumaki's mood or he's probably going to be in a funk all day._ He thought before turning to Naruto and asking, "Hey Naruto! How about I treat you, Sakura and the kids to a bowl of ramen at Ichiraku's?"

"Huh? Ramen?" Naruto asked immediately his earlier funk almost completely forgotten.

"Yeah, but you'll have to limit yourself to a bowl a piece." He said with some chagrin as he considered the state of his wallet, "I might not be broke but if Teuchi-san is telling the truth, I can't afford to pay for the number of bowls your capable of packing away."

This caused a little embarrassment for Naruto but he figured the kid was probably used to it, given his reputation as the village trickster and commotion causer. Sakura however had a curious look on her face and he knew a question was incoming.

"Why are you offering to buy us lunch?" she asked before realizing that her question might be taken as sign of mistrust or something, "I mean we barely know you."

"Well the truth of the matter is that I want to get to know my cousin a little better but he's always unavailable when I try to talk to him." He replied mixing some truth with some fiction in his response, "So I figured if I can't get any answers from him then you guys are probably the next best source of info."

"Sasuke's your cousin?" Sakura asked with some surprise and curiosity.

"Yeah. After the test up in the training grounds, I did some digging and managed to find a record of the Uchiha family tree. Apparently my mother was his father's sister which makes him my cousin." He replied truthfully, since he did do some research to figure out where exactly he placed in the Uchiha family.

This information apparently disarmed whatever suspicion Sakura might have had about him and judging from the smile on her face it'd be mere seconds before they were ramen bound.

_I just hope that none of these kids has an appetite to rival Naruto's or my wallet is going to be crying before this is all over._ He thought with a slight grimace since the stirring inside of him was seriously distracting.

&

_**Ichiraku Ramen Bar, Thirty Minutes Later, Sakura's Perspective**_

_Xander-san is nothing like Sasuke._ Sakura thought as she ate her ramen.

It had only been ten minutes since they arrived at Ichiraku's but from talking with Xander-san, she could tell that whatever life he might have led before coming to Konoha it hadn't been too bad. Once the introductions had been gotten out of the way, he'd gotten along with Naruto like they were old friends and, since Konohamaru as well as the other kids looked up to Naruto, they considered Xander-san worthy of respect as well. Though from what she'd seen at the observation post near the training grounds, he definitely deserved respect with the way he managed to face his teammates. While she had heard the same stories and rumors about Team Anko as everyone else, there was now way to dismiss the new Uchiha's achievements as anything but impressive. She'd asked him how he'd learned so many jutsus without ever having gone through the academy and he'd told her about the 'spell' that had happened during an American Autumn festival. It had shocked her that someone would be so…so…irresponsible and reckless to unleash a spell that turned people into whatever they were pretending to be. However, when he told her that he'd dressed up in the uniform of an unnamed Jounin, it became clear how he knew so many different jutsus, but when she'd inquired as to why he knew techniques from so many different rankings, he told her that when the spell broke that the memories that he retained were pretty much random.

Naruto, of course, found the whole idea of being turned into whoever he chose to dress up like as being exciting as well as lots of fun. Her teammate went on to list the people he'd dress up like, just for the chance to keep knowledge of certain techniques, ranging from the Hokages to Kakashi-sensei. Konohamaru also joined in along with their friends and, for the next five minutes, she had no choice but to hear the little kids (and someone of the same mental age as them) debate costume ideas. Fortunately Xander-san saw her predicament and asked her to tell him about some of Team 7's recent adventures and missions. Glad to have a somewhat more **intellectual** conversation, she proceeded to tell him about the more interesting missions including the C ranked mission to the country of Wave that turned into an A ranked mission with the arrival of Zabuza. He listened to her with more attention than Naruto or even Sasuke-kun usually did, so she did her best to recount everything that happened perfectly.

"So this Haku was able to do jutsu's with only one hand?" Xander-san asked with significantly more interest than before.

"Hai, but I haven't figured out how she was able to do it." She replied with some frustration at the puzzle she couldn't seem to figure out, "As soon as we got back to Konoha, I went to the library to see if it was some kind of kekkei genkai or something but nothing I read about matched all that well."

"Maybe it's just something she came up with on her own?" Xander-san proposed before a contemplative look came over him, "It's definitely a trick I wouldn't mind learning but I guess since she's dead I'll just have to figure it out on my own. Definitely something worth trying!"

The look she saw on his face wasn't the face of someone making idle claims or whimsical decisions, but rather someone who'd just made a lifelong goal for himself.

"But there's no telling how long it'll take to figure out how Haku did it." She said, trying to remind the older Genin of the realities of the objective he'd set for himself, "You could work all your life trying to figure out how she did it and never do it yourself."

"Probably. Then again. if I manage to do it then it'll definitely be something to tell the kids about someday." He said before a slightly hesitant or thoughtful frown came over his face, "Assuming I even have kids and. given my dating track record. I'll be lucky if I wind up with a steady girlfriend much less a wife."

She couldn't help but blush a bit at the sudden change from talking about a newly discovered technique to Xander-san's lack of success getting a girlfriend or future wife. However, once she got over her embarrassment, she began to appraise the newly arrived Uchiha both on his own and comparing him to Sasuke-kun. On her first pass, he seemed to be pretty much average and, while there were a few features that were sort of like her teammate's, they were subtle. On closer inspection, though, she could tell that he had kind brown eyes that had only a few shadows, indicating that while he hadn't had an easy life he hadn't let it weigh him down. Covertly, she saw that he was in pretty good shape and the fabric that made up his shirt showed off a muscled body that immediately caused her to divert her attention elsewhere. Still, she couldn't help but wonder if Sasuke would look that good in two or three years or what might have been had she just been a few years older. She almost went tomato red at the images her mind produced but quickly focused on the ramen in front of her until her mind cleared up.

"Xander-san? Will your team be doing the Chuunin exam?" Naruto asked after swallowing a mouthful of ramen.

"Yep! Anko-sensei knew about the exam yesterday and submitted our names right then and there." Xander-san replied with a confident grin, "It'll be our first, but we're going to give it everything we've got and won't stop until we all make it to the final phase of the exam!"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically, making it clear that was his mission statement as well and, to a degree, she felt the same way. However she also had some doubts about whether or not she was ready for the exam given how she'd managed during the mission to Wave country. Despite the fact that she was academically the best of the three of them and had superior chakra control, it had been Sasuke-kun and Naruto who had done the most on that mission. The most she had been able to do was protect the client and even then she would have failed if it hadn't been for the others intercepting Zabuza at the last second. In the end, she had no choice but to admit that in terms of talent or chakra power, she was behind the others by a large amount. With this in mind, she wasn't sure if she should go with the others to take the exam if she was only going to hold them back in the end. Perhaps it'd be better if she just let them go on without her.

"Of course I don't know if either Sasuke or Naruto can make it very far without you on their side, Sakura-san. After all, why they might have more power than you, if they went into the exam all by themselves they'd probably spend all their time yelling at each other for one reason or another." Xander-san said casually, even though it sounded like he had just read her mind, "You're the glue that keeps team Kakashi together, Sakura-san. If there's one person this ahou and Sasuke care about it's you and if there's one person other than Kakashi they'll listen to seriously, it's you."

"Maybe." She muttered, wanting to believe that she had that much influence over her teammates but not quite believing it.

Xander-san looked like he was about to say something else before an eagle hawk's cry sounded overhead, causing him to look up. While the birds weren't exactly uncommon in this region she could immediately tell that it was the American Uchiha's partner Ava from the slight discoloration on the right leg in the shape of a scar. Her identification was proven right when Xander-san winced a bit before glaring at the eagle hawk like she sometimes did with Naruto.

"Looks like it's time to feed my partner." Xander-san said with some annoyance, "Sorry I have to cut this little chat short but if I don't find her something to eat now, she'll start dive bombing us with whatever she can carry until I surrender. See ya!"

Watching Xander-san walk away she decided that whenever she had a problem and Kakashi-sensei or her teammates weren't around to listen she'd see if Xander-san was around. The power a good listener has to life the spirits of the troubled was definitely something remarkable.

&

_**Main Audience Chamber, Hokage Tower, Anko's Perspective, Same Time**_

"I called you all here for a reason." Hokage-sama stated from his position on the raised section of the room, "You should already know why from the people who are here, though."

Indeed only a village idiot would be unable to understand the purpose of a meeting involving all the Jounins who currently were in charge of Genin teams. Of course she had known this was coming a week beforehand, thanks to her meeting with Hokage-sama concerning Xander-kun being placed on her team. Remembering that day, she had to marvel a bit at the changes that had occurred on her team since the American Uchiha had arrived. While her Genin were still far from being perfect, there was a definite marked improvement in their performance and her decision to make Xander team leader was definitely raising their teamwork level. If the three of them kept progressing at their current rate then, by the time the exam started, they'd be as good as any other Genin team submitted to participate.

"So it's that time of the year already?" Kakashi asked with his usual apathetic tone of voice.

"You have already reported this to the other countries?" Sarutobi Asuma asked with some concern at the news, "I've already seen a few in this village."

"So? When is it?" Yuhi Kurenai asked aiming right for the most important info.

"One week from now." The Third replied promptly before falling silent.

"That's sudden." Kakashi said voicing the mild surprise everyone else was no doubt feeling.

"I will make the official announcement…" Hokage-sama said after taking a puff from his pipe, "Seven days from now, we will begin the Chuunin selection exam."

With this blunt statement, Anko had no doubt that the majority of the Jounin present were scrambling to try and figure out whether or not the Genin on their team were ready for the exam. It was not a decision to be made lightly because the exam was a very serious event with a very real possibility of a Genin getting seriously hurt if they weren't up to the task. More than a few academy graduates had been buried because their Jounin teachers had overestimated their abilities. However, based on what she had observed the past week, she was sure that her team had what it took to go all the way. Even if Hokage-sama hadn't already penciled them in for participation, she'd have no trouble submitting Ayeka, Hana and Xander for the exam.

"Now that we are going to start the Chuunin selection exam, those in charge of new Genin, step forward." Hokage-sama declared formally so he could hear who would represent Konoha at the exam.

With those words Asuma, Kurenai and Kakashi stepped forward as they were the only Jounins who had been assigned new graduates from the academy. Reviewing the names of the kids assigned to each of the three, she figured that at least two of the three teams would be submitted for the exam. While it was true that Kakashi's team had potential, she thought the wiser move would be to hold the three back for at least a year. It was a rare team indeed that could go from the academy straight into the Chuunin exams and actually pass it on their first try. In the entire history of Konoha, she could only recall a handful of teams that could make that claim.

"Kakashi, Kurenai Asuma." The Third said with utmost formality and seriousness, "Are there any Genins you wish to enter into the exam among the ones you teach?"

While it was true that a Jounin teacher could submit a single participant into the exam, it was pretty rare considering how most teachers tended to emphasize teamwork. Usually, by the time that a Genin acquires enough experience to be considered for the exam, they are so used to working with a team that they are reluctant to participate alone. Still, the proposal had to be made on the off chance that a Genin truly was skilled enough to handle such a dangerous test on their own.

"You probably already know this, but any Genin who has completed more than eight missions is eligible to enter the exam through your recommendations." Hokage-sama stated, reminding the Jounin in front of him of an important qualification, "But normally, those who have done twice that amount of missions are more suitable. Let's start with Kakashi."

"From the 7th squad that I lead: Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura." Kakashi said without any hesitation at all, "I recommend those three to the Chuunin selection exam under my name, Hatake Kakashi."

"From the 8th squad that I lead: Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino." Kurenai said with a similar lack of reluctance indicating her confidence in her students, "I recommend those three to the Chuunin selection exam under my name, Yuhi Kurenai."

"From the 10th squad that I lead: Yamanak Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji." Asuma said with a confident smile on his face, "I recomment those three to the Chuunin selection exam under my name, Sarutobi Asuma."

This caused an instant whisper storm and she couldn't blame the rest of those present, since she too was a surprised that six Genin, fresh from the academy, more or less, were being submitted to the Chuunin exam. To her knowledge, it had only been a few months since those Genin graduated from the academy so, in her mind, they were too inexperienced and young to be participating in such a dangerous exam. She knew that some, if they knew about him, would have said that Xander was too inexperienced to be taking part in the Chuunin selection exam but they'd be wrong. She had watched him carefully during the days that followed the test she'd given him and she considered him to be equal to any of the other Genin that would be taking part in the event.

"Please wait!" cried Iruka in obvious opposition to what had just occurred.

"What is it, Iruka?" Hokage-sama asked politely.

"Please let me speak, Hokage-sama." Iruka said pleadingly, "Excuse me for interfering, but the nine who had their names called were students of mine at the academy. Every one of them is talented, but it's too early! They need more experience before they enter the exam!"

While she sympathized with Iruka, Anko knew that none of the Jounin teachers would have submitted the names of their subordinates unless they were certain in their decision.

"I became a Chuunin when I was six years younger than Naruto." Kakashi said, pointing out that age didn't always play a factor in whether a genin was ready or not.

"Naruto is different from you!" Iruka exclaimed angrily as his words seemed to have little effect on those he wished to influence, "Are you trying to ruin him?"

"They always complain during important missions. Putting them into a dangerous situation might be interesting." Kakashi said in response to Iruka's question, "Ruining them is also interesting."

_Ai! Kakashi needs to work on his tact!_ She thought to herself as she saw the angry set of Iruka's shoulders take form.

"What did you say…" Iruka growled out, obviously angry at the idea of someone purposefully trying to harm his former students for simple amusement.

"That was a joke." Kakashi said without any humor in his voice.

_He also needs to work on his sense of humor!_ She thought fighting the urge to roll her eyes at the man.

"Iruka-sensei, I understand what you are saying." Kakashi said with genuine sincerity in his voice, "You must be upset as well, but…"

"Kakashi, stop." Kurenai, said obviously having a good idea about what her fellow Jounin was about to say.

"Don't interfere! They are no longer your students." Kakashi said harshly, making it clear that he believed Iruka had no right to tamper with the submission process, "They are my subordinates now."

This put everyone on edge because, if the tempers of the two men went up much further, the chance of them coming to blows wasn't out of the question. Fortunately, though, Kakashi's statement seemed to prompt Iruka to reign in his emotions somewhat.

"But the Chuunin exam is also known as the…" Iruka said in continued protest of the submissions made mere minutes ago.

"Iruka, I understand your argument." Third said in a reasonable tone of voice.

"Hokage-sama…" Iruka said, now choosing to plead his case to Sarutobi.

"So, we will put the rookie Genins through a special preliminary exam." Hokage-sama said with enough seriousness to make it clear this was as far as he would bend things.

"Preliminary exam?" Iruka asked with some confusion.

"Yes. You will be the examiner." The Third said with no room for compromise, "You will test each of the Genin and determine if they are ready for the Chuunin exam. If they meet your standards of skill then they will be allowed to participate. However, if they fail, then I will put aside the recommendations that they take part in the exam. Is this satisfactory?"

_Looks like I'm not the only one to have a student being accorded special treatment. _She thought since she could not recall another time in which a Genin submitted for the exam had to go through a preliminary exam before they could participate.

"Yes Hokage-sama." Iruka replied with a respectful bow.

"Then I hereby bring this meeting to an end." Said the Third addressing the entire group of Jounin, "You will each receive your assignments shortly. I expect you all to be well prepared the day of the exam. Dismissed."

With the meeting over most of the Jounin present began to file out of the room but she stayed behind because she had received a personal summons from Hokage-sama and knew he would want to speak to her after the official meeting. The summons hadn't mentioned the reason he wanted to see her, but she supposed it had something to do with Xander-kun. It had been a while since the Third had actually seen Xander-kun in action and, so, it wouldn't be entirely unexpected that he'd want a status report. Both the Hokage and the ruling council of Konoha were quite interested in the newest Uchiha to dwell in the village. For the Third, she imagined the old man simply saw a new member to add to the household that was Konoha but for the council, she figured they wanted to know if Xander-kun was anything like his mother. While too young at the time to completely remember everything, she knew the name of the daughter of the two people Xander-kun had buried his mother with. Uchiha Jun'ko. Up until that fateful day seventeen years ago, Jun'ko had been somewhat infamous for her inventive tactics and unorthodox use of jutsus. However, evidence had soon been found to suggest that she had been secretly passing along sensitive documents to the enemy. While most of it had been circumstantial, her guilt became a matter of fact when her accomplice, a mole in ANBU, had fingered her as his accomplice. A squad was sent to apprehend her but when they arrived at her home it was already aflame with no way for anyone to enter without putting out the fire first. By the time they did, though, little remained of anything inside and many had thought that she had perished in the fire. Nevertheless, a search of the surrounding area had been conducted but, with no evidence of escape found, she had officially been labeled as dead.

So to have Xander-kun show up out of nowhere, claiming to be the son of Uchiha Jun'ko, must have really stirred up a hornet's nest with them.

Also predictably, the majority of them immediately suspected Xander-kun to be no better than his mother and that, she suspected, was the reason for Hokage-sama's decision to place him on her team. To prove them wrong! Well she already knew that no matter what his mother might have been, Xander-kun was no traitor. Quite the opposite, really, in that she believed he would sooner die himself then betray someone he cared about. Therefore, if the Chuunin exam was meant to be a way to prove this, she would work those three like dogs so that when the time came those grumpy old folk on the council wouldn't have a leg to stand on in a character assault on Xander.

"Anko." Hokage-sama said after all the other Jounins had left, "How are things progressing with your own team?"

Walking forward until she was right in front of the raised portion of the room, she replied "Xander's skills are improving now that he has an actual instructor to show him how to do things and since I've made him team leader, teamwork is also getting better. I am fully confident that they'll do well in the Chuunin exam."

"Good, good. I'm personally looking forward to seeing how far those three can go with Xander in command." Third said with a smile on his face, "I've even heard a rumor going around that there's a betting pool going on concerning your team."

_A betting pool!!_ She thought angry at the idea that people were actually trying to make money off of her team.

"In fact, as of this morning, all but two bets have your team not even making it to the end of the second phase." Hokage-sama said with some amusement in his voice, "However, I have always been something of a fan of the underdog, so you'll be happy to know I bet two thousand Ryo on your team making it to the end of the second phase and six thousand Ryo on at least one of them participating in the final matches."

The news that the Third at least was betting in favor of her team did a lot to take some of the anger out of her system, but it still bothered her that no one else seemed to believe her team could move past their status as Genin. Now more than ever she was determined to prove them wrong and, with Xander-kun leading the team, she knew they'd be able to do it!

"Thank you, Hokage-sama!" she said gratefully before bowing to him.

"Just help me win the betting pool and we'll call it even. Heheheheheh!" Third said before he chuckled at how interesting things had become.

&

_**One Week Later, Konoha Academy Campus, 2:40p.m**_

"So you guys ready?" Ayeka asked her teammates as they strolled down the corridors of the academy campus.

"Yep! We're going to sweep this exam and no one's gonna stop us!" Xander-sama replied with a smile perfectly fitting for the confidence in his voice.

"For once I agree with you, Wannabe." Hana said with a feral grin on her face, making it clear that she expected them to make it all the way to the top.

It had been a full week since the Chuunin exams had been formally announced and, with the inside scoop from Anko-sensei, they knew that they had to win. If people were almost openly betting against them even making it as far as the second phase of the exam, then it pissed her off and there was no way she was going to let them win! As a result, they had spent the past six days training like a trio possessed to reach new heights of skill and teamwork. Hana was even following Xander-sama's commands without even a little fuss during the training scenarios and that was an accomplishment all by itself. Of course it didn't stop her from verbally tearing him a new one afterwards if she got a little scratched up thanks to the strategy came up with. Personally, Ayeka didn't know what the dog girl was so upset about, given the way she normally wound up after a fight. Oh, she knew that it was pretty much the norm among the Inuzuka clan to use an animalistic fighting style and she supposed that there were some advantages to that, but it always left her just as banged up as she was after one of Xander-sama's plans. The only reason she could think of why Hana was getting upset was that the girl still hadn't gotten over that kiss Xander-sama gave her during the three-part test in the beginning.

_Not that I can blame her for it._ She thought dreamily as she recalled her own kiss with her future husband, _That young man can kiss me __**anytime**__!_

It had been the grand finale of many of her dreams ever since and never failed to ensure a good night's sleep for her.

All that aside, though, it was now time for them to show the rest of the village that they were no longer the team to be laughed at but rather the team that all others should aspire to be like. It was about then that she heard a commotion coming from down one of the hallways up ahead and, just like with her, it caught her teammates' attention. Moving in the direction of the sound, they soon found the source in the form of a group of Genin from various villages. It looked like they were trying to enter a classroom but were being stopped by two other Genin from Konoha who looked entirely too cocky.

"Maybe you should quit, kids," Said the one with the bandana forehead protector on his head.

"You're still just kids," Said the one with a scarf and a nose so red it looked like it had been blown one time too many.

Right then and there, Ayeka knew their type because the same sort of ninjas had been making fun of Team Anko ever since the first time they'd been passed over for participation in the Chuunin exam. If there was one thing she hated, it was the people who thought it was fun to kick people around, whether it was with words or physically. Right then and there she was about ready to see if these two were good enough to handle her fifty-two hit projectile and ninjutsu attack. However, just as she was about to start things off with a trio of kunai, she felt Xander-sama put a hand on her shoulder stopping her movements.

"What is it Xander-sama?" she asked before looking up and gasping at the sight of the Sharingan in his eyes.

"Those aren't Genin and there's a genjutsu on the sign above the classroom." Xander-sama replied in a voice that was all business, "I think it's all a test for the new Genins. A way of weeding out the weaker ones right from the start."

"What makes you think that, Wannabe?" Hana asked with a genuinely curious voice rather than a sneering skeptical one.

"Well, for one thing, those guys kept referring to Rock Lee and the others as just being kids." Xander-sama replied sounding like he'd thought it all out, "Now at first I thought it was just a couple of brats being jerks but then I got to wondering and let my Sharingan do the rest. They're using henge no jutsu to look like teenagers and they've altered the sign to look like the one where they told all the Genins doing the Chuunin exam to go to."

Looking at it from that perspective, she could definitely see how it could be some kind of test on the part of the Chuunin examiners. With that thought, her desire to marry Xander-sama only grew and she reached up to place her own hand on his as a sign of her affection for him. However, just as her hand was about to successfully settle on his hand, something sharp and pointed snapped at her hand, forcing her to withdraw. It didn't take her two seconds to figure out the cause and only one to glare at the overgrown feather duster that had been blocking her every effort to get close to Xander-sama. While she had been fortunate the day of the stink bombs nine days before, ever since then the eagle hawk had never let its guard down. Every **single STINKIN'** time she'd tried to lay an intimate hand on the young Lord, the bird had intervened either pecking at her or ruining her clothes. Oh, there were a few times that it had worked out in her favor with one of the straps to her shirt being ripped apart, resulting in her giving Xander-sama a flash of what she had to offer, but it was still bothersome. In any case, though, there was nothing she could do about it for the time being because, as much as she might dislike the bird, her future husband valued the edge it gave him in a fight. Fortunately eagle hawks didn't live anywhere near as long as humans did and since this one looked like it had reached physical maturity, then it was only a matter of time before it died. Then it would be just her and Xander-sama with nothing to get in the way of their future wedded bliss!

"Idiots. If we're supposed to report to room 301, then obviously it's going to be on the third floor." Hana said, sneering at the obvious stupidity of her fellow Genins, "Let's go and let these idiots figure it out for themselves."

She, of course, had no trouble with that since the majority of the people gathered around the door were first year Genins, with the exception of the members of Team Gai. If they were too stupid to piece the situation together like Team Anko had, then they deserved to fail the exam. It'd just mean more of a chance that they'd wind up being the only team from Konoha to make it to the finals, where they could really rub their victory into the faces of their naysayers. With that thought, Ayeka began to follow the dog girl but soon realized that Xander-sama wasn't following them or at least not without some hesitation in their step. It was then that she realized that her future husband's inner goodness was trying to convince him into letting the lesser Genin in on the fact that they were being tricked and tested. Unfortunately, if he did that, then they might not get to the ream exam room on the third floor in time since she doubted that this crowd held all the remaining Genins.

"Leave them to find out on their own, Xander-sama." She said, turning halfway towards him both to look at him and let him once again see her slim trim figure, "If they're too stupid to figure out such a simple trick, then it'd be better if they didn't go any further. Even people without your Sharingan should be able to figure it out so the only ones who won't get it are stupid ones."

"I suppose you're right." He said, sounding like he had come around to her way of thinking.

"Now let's get going. It's only thirty minutes until they won't accept any more applications for the exam." She said as she resumed heading in the direction of the stairs that would lead to the third floor, "Plus I want to try and get a good seat for this."

Of course her idea of a good seat was by the smartest looking people in the entire room so she could sneak look at their answers to the written test she was sure the first phase was going to be. While it was true that the people in charge of the exam mixed things up every year so as to keep the potential Chuunins from preparing for any of the phases ahead of time, she had been told by a **reliable** source that the first one would be a written test. Oh, she hadn't openly promised the guy anything or even anything that he might be able to use against her later. Men had such **wonderful** imaginations that all a woman has to do was make a few **random** comments and the fools practically fell all over themselves to be of help. If the fool attempt to press her into holding up what he **perceived** to be her end of the bargain, then she was sure she could count on Xander-sama to drive the pervert away.

_This is just proof that I am the best combination of both beauty and brains that Konoha has or ever will see. _She thought, allowing a smug smile to grace her face.

As they reached the third floor and began to go towards the classroom where the written test would be taking, she wondered how precisely they would hide the true purpose of the test. She knew it couldn't **just** be a test like they had back at the academy or there'd be little point to it all since all the Genin who were academically gifted would pass easily. While some might think that a Genin that did well on tests would do well on real life missions, she knew that to be completely false. Sometimes the ones who made names for themselves on missions were the ones that had average or below average grades, so there really was no way to tell just by putting a list of questions in front of a Genin whether they were Chuunin material or not. That meant that there would be some hidden test, something outside of the box, that would let the examiners know if the person should proceed to the next phase or not. While she had been prepared to go a little further with her source to find out exactly what the hidden test was, it became clear to her after a few casually phrased questions that the idiot didn't know. She'd just have to keep her eyes and ears open so she'd catch the truth when it flew through the room.

_The only problem might be how to pass it along to Xander-sama should he have difficulty discerning the truth. _She thought with a slight frown as her mind vetoed idea after idea about how to accomplish this goal.

It wouldn't be easy.

But it would be worth it.

Worth it to have Xander-sama in her debt.

&

_**The Examination Room Fifteen Minutes Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Well! Just __**look**__ at all the happy faces!_ Xander thought as he looked at the veritable sea of Genins from virtually all the hidden villages in the region, _It's about as friendly as a nest of hungry vampires._

He, Hana and Ayeka had arrived five minutes ago and the moment they'd entered the room, all the other Genin had fixed them with an 'I **will** defeat you' glare at maximum intensity. It was clear that the only potential allies he might have would be from other Konoha Genin, especially Team Gai, Team Kurenai and Team Asuma. Even then, he'd only risk himself with those people he actually knew like Rock Lee and Hyuuga Hinata, since the others he hadn't really gotten to know. That, of course, assumed that the Genins present were allowed to choose where they sat rather than being told where to sit by the supervising Jounin and Chuunin. If it turned out that there was a seating plan of some kind, then he'd have to work out another way of protecting himself from the potentially hostile people in the room. Not that he expected a fight or anything, but he wouldn't put it past them to try and feed him the wrong answers or something. He was pretty sure that if everyone had been told to meet in a classroom that that meant some kind of academic test since anything else required more open space. Searching his Jounin memories from Halloween, Xander could vaguely recall what the written test was but not in enough detail to ace one if that was what the first phase of the test turned out to be.

With a gesture, he directed the rest of his team to one of the unoccupied corners of the room so they could wait for whoever was in charge of his phase of the exam. It was pretty close to three pm, so if the examiner was punctual then there was about ten minutes before he or she would show up. He decided he'd use that time to try and figure out the best way to deal with a written test and discern what kind of hidden objectives there might be. A few more teams came in, including Ahou-sama's, but it wasn't until the last team came in that he knew something interesting was going to happen. Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura of team seven entered a few minutes afterwards with all of them looking like they were ready for anything. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you chose to look at it, that was when Sasuke's unique ability to attract women kicked in when a blond from a team he didn't know walked briskly over to him.

"Sasuke-kun, you're late!" The blonde cried before jumping on him from behind and wrapping her arms around his shoulders, "I've been eagerly waiting for you ever since I heard that I could see you for the first time in a long time."

Judging from the look on his cousin's face it was clear he hadn't liked being jumped on and possibly not the female attention as well. Not that Xander could blame him, since having the Uchiha name for him had much the same effect on the women of this village. He didn't know whether this was because they were all status seeking gold diggers or just because they thought that being an Uchiha automatically made a person cooler than all the rest.

"Get away from Sasuke-kun you Ino-pig!" Exclaimed Sakura angrily, making it clear with those words that she had feelings for his cousin and considered the blonde girl, Ino, a rival in her quest.

"Oh my, it's you, Sakura." Ino said as though she had just now noticed the pink haired girl, even though the members of team seven had walked in together, "Your forehead is wide and you're still ugly…as usual."

_Oh, I don't know about that._ He thought to himself as he thought back to the ramen bar and his discussion with Sakura, _It didn't seem overly large to me and as for ugly, it looks like Ino needs glasses._

"What did you say?!" Sakura asked with anger and rhetoric.

While his first impulse had been to step forward and try to play at being a peacemaker, Xander knew that there was nothing he could do when it came to changing the minds of women. They were a complete mystery and he'd probably only make things worse trying to get involved in their little Sasuke tug of war.

It was about this time when Ino's teammates walked up to the impending explosion of anger, making him wonder if they weren't a little ignorant of the right way to handle situations like this. When one or more females start growling at one another and appeared unresponsive to reason, then it was safer to just stay clear of the blast zone entirely. Obviously these two were just beginning to try and understand women and were about to learn an important lesson the hard way.

"What, are you three going to take this troublesome exam, too?" asked the one with black hair, gray vest, wire mesh shirt and his forehead protector tied around his upper left arm.

"Hey, it's the idiot trio." Naruto said, getting a good look at Ino's teammates.

_Naruto! That kid seriously needs to learn the meaning of the word tact as well as the reason why you shouldn't antagonize people unnecessarily._ He thought as he wondered if the kid was so blunt in how he spoke to everyone else.

"Stop calling us that." Vest-boy said, indicating that this wasn't the first time that Naruto had used that nickname for the team, "How annoying."

It was about then that the final team of rookies made their way over in the form of Hana's little brother Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata and a bug guy named Aburame Shino, who he'd met one day after helping Hana home when she sprained her foot during training. All in all, Xander didn't expect too much of a fuss from their arrival but he definitely prayed that Ahou-sama's team didn't come over because, if that happened, things would get ugly.

"Yeah! Found you all!" Kiba said happily as he led his pack to the gathering point, "So I see that everyone is here."

"Hello…" said Hinata, who was practically using Kiba as a human shield from where she stood.

It was obvious that she had been intending to greet the object of her crush, Naruto, but the second the blonde boy looked at her, a sudden onset of shyness stopped her in her tracks. This time Xander couldn't help but shake his head at the sight, both because he knew he had his work cut out for him if he intended to coax her out of her shell before he left as well as the most likely reason for her shyness. While everyone has some shyness when they're born, it was the people they know and the environment they live in that determined whether or not it increased or decreased. For Hinata to be that shy, in his mind, had to mean that she was not often praised if at all and generally considered to be a disappointment to those important to her. Therefore, also in his mind, the best way to solve the dilemma was to set up a plan to increase her confidence level and let her know when she's accomplished something with her hard work.

"What? So you three made it, too? Geez…" Vest-boy said sounding like having classmates participate in the exam with him was a huge hassle.

"I see, so all nine Genin rookies this year are going to take the exam." Kiba said as though he had arranged it to be so from the beginning, "How far do you think we can get, Sasuke-kun?"

_Guess Hana was right saying that her little brother liked to talk big._ He thought as he wondered if a day would come when Kiba opened his mouth once too often.

"You seem to be confident, Kiba." Sasuke said sounding like he was the top dog out of the two of them.

"We trained like hell." Kiba said in reference to his team, "We won't lose to anyone, especially to you."

"Shut up. It doesn't matter whether you beat Sasuke or not, I won't lose to you." Naruto said, once again proving that he couldn't stand seeing his rival hog the spotlight.

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, Kiba-kun didn't mean it that way…" Hinata said, electing herself to play diplomat between the two teams.

Naturally Naruto looked at her and triggered what had to be an automatic reflex with Hinata that required that she look away from Naruto and blush in perfect synch. She definitely had it bad for him but, unless she overcame her shyness or Naruto actually managed to connect the dots, nothing would likely come of it. In which case, the safer bet would be to help her overcome her shyness because he figured he'd have a better chance of getting Giles to abandon tweed than seeing Naruto notice the obvious.

"Hey, you guys." Came a new voice of someone he didn't know, "You should quiet down a little. So you're the nine rookies that just graduated from the academy, correct?"

It turned out the newcomer was a silver-haired guy that looked like he was about two to three years older than the American Uchiha. Wearing glasses and a white-purple combo outfit, he looked to be pretty average in appearance and quite polite, given how he'd addressed the rookie Genin. Still, he looked pretty old to be taking an exam meant for Genin. Had he been held back like Hana and Ayeka? If so, then for what? The young man didn't look like he frequently started bar fights or dropped out at the slightest hint of getting dirty, nor did he appear to be the type that would piss off the people in charge. It was definitely a mystery and that made him all the more interested in the conversation that was about to transpire.

"You're all fooling around with those cute faces…" Shades said with a disappointed tone, "Geez, this isn't a field trip."

"Who are you to tell us that?!" Ino asked, sounding pretty angry at being spoken down to by someone she didn't know.

"I am Yakushi Kabuto. Look around you…" Kabuto said before turning in the direction of the crowd.

It was easy to see what kind of point the guy was trying to make. Most of the Genin present were easily over sixteen years of age and, therefore, had been trying to become Chuunin for a couple of years. For them to still be going at it meant that the Chuunin exam wasn't something to be taken lightly like the rookie nine had been doing since they entered the room. Naturally, those that were within earshot of the nine rookie Genins weren't all that happy at being sold short or belittled.

"The ones behind you are from the Hidden Village of Rain. They have a short temper. Everyone is tense since it is right before the exam." Kabuto explained, pointing out the group that seemed most ready to start something, "I warned you so that you won't get picked on."

Keeping this in mind, Xander placed his hands a little closer to the kunai holsters on his leg so he could jump in if something happened. He knew it was risky to wield a weapon when it was likely not permitted for this phase of the exam, but he wasn't about to allow his cousin and the others to get ambushed. Besides, seeing as how the Rain ninjas were around eighteen years old, they probably wouldn't mind at all if they were kicked out of the exam and had to wait until the next one.

"I guess it can't be helped, though, since you are just rookies who don't know anything about this exam." Kabuto said with an amused look, "It makes me remember the old me."

"Kabuto-san, was it?" Sakura asked, looking rightly suspicious of the newcomer.

"Yes." Kabuto replied politely.

"Is this your second time, then?" Sakura asked with everyone else listening curiously.

"No. It's my seventh time participating in the exam." Kabuto replied as though he were talking about the weather.

_WHAT?!_ He thought unable to comprehend how that could be possible.

It was one thing to be not even allowed to participate due to misbehavior prior to the exam, but if he was interpreting the response right, Kabuto had not only been allowed to participate seven times but had failed every previous time. That seemed rather odd because it just didn't seem possible that someone could be deemed capable of taking the exam, participate in it and then fail every single time. If the guy was a slacker or something, then perhaps his failing the Chuunin selection exam could be understood, but this guy looked like he was smart enough to ace it.

Something was definitely off about this guy.

"This exam only takes place twice every year, and it's my fourth year." Kabuto said when the others looked at him in confusion.

"That means you know a lot about this exam, right?" Sakura asked, sounding quite interested in a potential source of information about the exam.

"I know a bit." Kabuto replied nonchalantly.

"So you must be an expert, Kabuto-san." Naruto said in obvious respect for the knowledge the older Genin must possess.

"But he hasn't passed it." Vest-boy pointed out, much to Kabuto's chagrin.

"Yeah, that's true." Kabuto said with some embarrassment at his failures.

"Is the Chuunin exam that difficult?" Vest-boy asked, sounding like he'd just been told he had another five hours of work to do after working fifteen, "This is getting even more troublesome."

"Maybe I should give my cute underclassmen some information, then…" Kabuto said before removing what looked like a deck of playing cards from his equipment pouch, "With these recognition cards."

"Recognition cards?" Sakura asked, obviously never having heard of them before.

"In simple terms, it's a card that has information burned into it using my chakra." Kabuto replied, taking on an explanatory tone, "I've collected information on this exam for the past four years. There's about two hundred cards in total."

With that Kabuto took one card off the top of the deck and put it face up onto the floor.

"It looks white, but…" Kabuto said before placing his middle finger onto the white surface of the card, "To get the information from this card…"

Then, with no visible aid, the card began to rotate under the man's thumb at a fairly quick pace.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked like the curious student she was.

"It's made so that you can't view it without my chakra." Kabuto explained before focusing all his attention on what he was doing, "Like this."

With a puff of smoke, the card ceased to be blank any longer but rather had a map of the region on it with symbols indicating each Hidden Village and most likely the number of applicants participating in the exam. Xander deduced this from the fact that the numbers were too low to represent a nations total forces or anything else for that matter.

"Wow, what information is this?" Sakura asked with interest.

"The exam's total number of examinees and countries participating." Kabuto replied promptly, "It also has the number of participants from each hidden village. Let me ask, why do you think we do the Chuunin exam together?"

Judging from the silence coming from the rookie nine, it was clear that they were clueless as to what the answer was. Not that he was much better off but then he had a justifiable excuse.

"First, it's to deepen the friendly relationships with the other countries." Kabuto explained while looking over the rookie Genin, "Next, it's to heighten the level of the ninja. That is what they say."

"That is what they say?" Sasuke asked as though he was hoping for something a little more insightful.

"Yes, the real purpose is to confirm the level of ninja in each adjacent country to try and balance out the power." Kabuto explained seriously with all the others listening carefully.

"Power? Balance?" Naruto asked unfortunately, showing his lack of experience with deep thought.

"And why do they go through such a troublesome task?" Vest-boy asked with his usual 'enthusiasm'.

"If they don't do that, the weak countries will be invaded and dominated by the strong ones." Kabuto explained after removing the information from the card, "So, they need to check and restrain each other's powers. It's just my guess, though."

"Are there any cards there that have detailed personal information?" Sasuke asked, sounding like he wanted to get to know his potential opponents better.

"Yes. Is there someone that interests you?" Kabuto replied before asking a question of his own.

"Yes." Was all that Sasuke said playing his hand close to the vest.

"The information of this exam's examinees are not perfect, but I've burned and saved them." Kabuto replied, putting the revealed card back into the deck, "They include the information about the nine of you, as well. Tell me whatever you know about the people you know that interest you. I'll look it up for you."

"Gaara from the Hidden Village of Sand." Sasuke said, letting a trace of his true interest seep through, "And Rock Lee from Konoha"

Figures. After the encounter he had a week ago, it made sense that my cousin would want any info available on such a strange ninja. Rock Lee, on the other hand, Xander was surprised at since. to his knowledge. his relative hadn't encountered the Bruce Lee wannabe yet. Still. he was interested in the taijutsu kid was well so his ears perked up with interest.

"Oh, you know their names. Then it won't take much time." Kabuto said before doing something that, for some reason, reminded him of the 'remove the table cloth without disturbing the tea cups' trick.

However the trick apparently ended with Kabuto holding two cards in his hand even though one might think he could only have been able to pick up one with such a swift move.

"Here we go." Kabuto said holding up the cards that presumably held the personal info on Rock Lee and Gaara.

"Show me." Sasuke commanded since the word request would have been an inadequate description.

"First, let's see Rock Lee." Kabuto said before performing the same jutsu/trick as before, "He's one year older than you. Mission experience, twenty D-rank missions and eleven C-rank ones. Jounin teacher is Gai. His hand-to-hand combat skills have increased dramatically this past year, but his other skills are terrible. He got everyone's attention last year as a skilled rookie Genin, but he didn't take the Chuunin exam. This is his first time taking it, like you. His team is composed of Tenten and Hyuuga Neji."

"Next, let's see Gaara of the Desert." Kabuto said before performing his trick, "Mission experience, eight C-ranked missions and…this is amazing! He did a B-rank mission as a Genin. He is a foreign ninja and it's his first time taking the exam, so I don't have any more information on him, but it seems that he has returned from all of his missions unharmed."

That last fact was the most interesting of all that he had heard about this Gaara shinobi. It was amazing enough to learn that the strange boy had completed a B-ranked mission since no one that young should have been assigned to one in the first place. However, to learn that the leader of the Sand Genin had come back from every mission unharmed was beyond strange. It was usually difficult enough for Genin to come back in one piece from permissible C-ranked missions and expected of D-ranked missions, but a B-ranked one should have done some damage. Vest-boy agreed with him and he was sure the others were amazed as well.

"Who is he?" Naruto asked in a stunned tone of voice.

"Konoha, Sand, Rain, Grass, Waterfall and Sound." Kabuto said after bringing back the map card and displaying its info, "This year, many talented Genins from these hidden villages have come here to take the exam. The Hidden Village of Sound is a village of a small country that was just made recently, so I don't have much information on them. Either way, all of them are powerful hidden villages."

"I am starting to lose confidence…" Hinata said no doubt feeling what self-confidence she had weaken under the weight of this new info.

"It's too late to say that!" Ino exclaimed clearly reacting to this info with anxiety, irritation and anger.

"In other words, the examinees here are all…" Sakura said with some nervousness in her own voice.

"Right…It's not only Lee or Gaara. All the people here are top elites chosen from each country." Kabuto said, confirming what was no doubt on Sakura's mind, "This isn't going to be as easy as you might have thought."

_Nothing in the life of a ninja is easy. This is just one more test to see if you have what it takes to rise to the top._ He thought to himself not allowing his concern about his potential adversaries get out of control.

If the shaking that was going on with Naruto was any hint, not everyone had the self-control, he did because it looked like the blonde boy was about to run screaming from the room in fear. Sakura also seemed to sense this and like the mediator of team seven she was went to try and cheer him up.

"Hey, Naruto. You don't need to be that scared…" she began to say but it was then that the trembling stopped completely and the stillness of determination came over the noisy ninja.

Whipping around the boy thrust out a finger pointing at the collective ninja Genins occupying the majority of the class seats and said "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I'm not going to be beaten by any of you! Got that!?"

Sadly this was apparently the last thing the other rookie Genin wanted, since it pretty much centered the hostile gazes of the older gathered Genin on the blonde boy as well as anyone in the immediate area.

"Hey, what's with him?!" Ino asked, clearly not liking this unwanted attention and hostility, "What's the point in provoking everyone?!"

"Don't ask me!" Sakura yelled back to the blonde who had been yelling her ear.

"Who else am I supposed to ask?!" Ino fired back with equal anger.

"What did you say?!" Sakura fired back more because she felt like retaliating than anything else.

_That kid just made himself a room full of enemies with just a few sentences._ He thought to himself as he thanked God that he had been born with more common sense.

"'I'm not going to lose to any of you'? You sure talk big." Kiba said sounding amused at the blonde boy's outburst.

"That idiot. He just made everyone here his enemy." Vest-boy said with disappointment in his voice at such a stupid move.

Sakura tried to reign in Naruto's enthusiasm while at the same time calm down those that had been offended at the words spoken. Xander didn't think that it'd work, seeing as how everyone present probably had a little pride in them about being chosen for the exam. However, it was then that he sensed something from the crowd of Genin ninja from the other villages that immediately put him on edge. It wasn't 'murderous intent' but more like those times when he had been patrolling the cemeteries back at home and felt like danger was heading their way. Something was quickly coming towards the entrance/exit of the classroom and it was not coming to make a Speedy Delivery of the news. Activating his Sharingan, he easily picked out the three Genins, presumably from the Hidden Village of Sound, judging by the note symbol on their forehead protectors, zipping towards the group as though they were about to attack. He didn't know whether or not they meant to seriously hurt anyone or were just planning on scaring someone, but he refused to take the chance. Pulling two kunai from his holsters, he estimated that their target was Kabuto, probably meaning to deliver some payback for the description of their village, and immediately moved to intercept.

Ignoring everything else except that which was important to his objective, Xander maneuvered around the rookie Genin but was too late to intercept the kunai thrown by one of the Sound ninja. This resulted in Kabuto leaping backwards to avoid them and apparently get set up for the ninja that looked like a mummy. This one, however, he would catch and, with a final burst of speed from his chakra enhanced legs, he did two things to stop the attacking Sound ninja in his tracks. The first was to place the kunai in his left hand right at the elbow joint of bandage-boy while the other was to put the throwing knife right above the space between the third and forth rib from the top. Within three seconds all movement stopped on both their parts, the sound ninja looking both surprised and worried at the current situation. Understandable, since any further hostile moves on bandage-boy's part would result in either the loss of the ability to use the right arm or instant death due to his heart having a hole in it.

"You need to calm down, Sound ninja." Xander said with a tone that was **dead** serious, "You want a chance to prove that your village is worthy of respect and perhaps fear? You do it by passing this exam, not acting like petty highway bandits looking for a fight."

Looking to the two other Sound ninja who looking like they were searching for a way to help their teammate, he knew he had to say something to keep them in check as well.

"As for you two, before you think about 'helping' your teammate by attacking me, ask yourselves two questions: can I take him down in one hit and will he still be able to hurt my teammate despite being hit." He said moving his kunai a little closer to their targets to add extra emphasis to his words.

This took the wind right out of their sails, causing them to assume a more at ease posture rather than the hostile ones they had been in before.

"Now let's just sit back and wait for the examiners to get here. Okay?" Xander asked bandage-boy without letting his guard down once.

"R-right…" Bandage-boy said with genuine fear and thus genuine honesty in his voice.

Deciding that that was good enough for him, he pulled back and returned his kunai to their holsters but kept his eyes, still with Sharingan active, on them as they withdrew. With the crisis over, he let out a quiet sigh of relief since he really didn't know what he would've done had they decided to take things further. It had all been a bluff on his part but he had had to behave as though he meant every word if he wanted those three to believe he was serious, but he knew that with his interference he had just signed his name on their hit list and they would definitely make it their mission during the exam to pay him back. Still, Xander already had a few ideas about what sort of techniques they'd use and could use the time until the encounter to come up with valid counters. Turning back to rejoin his team, he found that the looks on the faces of the rookie nine as well as on Hana and Ayeka were quite different than he expected.

To the looks of surprise, suspicion and shock he could only say one thing.

"What?"

&

_**Third Floor Classroom, Hana's Perspective, Forty Minutes Later**_

_Thanks for doing all the work for me otōto-san!_ Hana thought as Hagane relayed another answer given to Kiba by Akamaru.

While she didn't trust her brother to be able to think his way out of a paper bag, she knew from the few times that Akamaru had been under her care that the dog was smart. She knew that the pup's eyes were good and had seen signs of its intelligence during the yearly check ups, so she knew that it had indeed found someone with the right answers. Thanks to the sharp ears of her partners, it was a snap to over hear what Akamaru was saying and pass the info along to her. So far she had already jotted down the right answers to seven of the ten questions and didn't see a problem getting all but the tenth question that the examiner Ibiki said wouldn't be released until the last fifteen minutes. Casting covert glances around the room, she could see that the blonde bimbo wasn't doing too badly either by pulling a variation on an old mirror trick to take advantage of Tenten's cheating method. Thanks to her probably wonderful acting abilities, Ayeka could manipulate her hand mirror any way she wanted and no examiner should be able to see through her performance. It would just be seen as typical Ayeka, being concerned more with her looks than the test in front of her and dismissed almost immediately.

_I guess there are __**some**__ advantages to being known as a vain self-centered bitch._ She thought as Ishina passed along another answer from Akamaru.

She couldn't look at Wannabe, since his seat was behind her, but she had a pretty good idea how he'd go about getting the right answers. Much like her little brother Kiba, none of the examiners had made a move to remove Ava from the room and so the overgrown feather duster was probably still on his shoulder. Given the excellent eyesight of eagle hawks and the telepathic link it had with Xander-baka, he stood the best chance of the three of them of covertly gathering the right answers to each question. After all, since she was fairly sure none of the examiners on either side of the room was telepathic themselves, there was no way for them to pick up on what Ava was sending to Wannabe. There was, of course, the chance that the ahou's position was bad so his bird wouldn't be able to take full advantage of its eyesight but so long as he just got one right, it'd be enough. Taking a quick glance around the room, she could see that the rookie nine had already figured out that the true purpose of the exam was to display perfect information gathering skills rather than answering all the questions perfectly. Using a wide variety of skills, she had a feeling that most of the rookie Konoha Genin were going to pass, including Team Gai, who Xander-baka seemed to have problems with. Team Kakashi, however, was going to flunk out if Seirei's nose was right about the emotional state of that noisy ninja Naruto. Almost from the beginning of the exam, Seirei had informed her that the blonde boy was on the verge of a panic attack and that hadn't changed one bit in the last forty-three minutes.

_Of course that kunai thrown right past his head probably hadn't helped matters any._ She thought as she recalled the event that started the elimination of those that had botched their info gathering test.

As she finished up the last of the questions she could answer aside from the tenth question, Hana could tell from the grin on Ibiki's face the jerk was about to unveil the last question. Bracing herself for what was probably going to be an explosive tag of a question, one that would have the potential to completely wipe out whatever progress a Genin might have had so far. That was how these crappy things always went: make the idiots think they've got it made and then pull the rug right out from under them.

_Normally I like pulling a 'you think you had all the answers then I go and change the questions' on people, but it pisses me off to be on the receiving end._ She thought as she put her pencil down and awaited the kyuubi-sized obstacle about to be unveiled.

"Okay, I will now give the tenth problem!" Ibiki announced, no doubt in the hopes of setting everyone's nerves on edge again.

Looking around, she could tell that those with weak nerves were sweating bullets and Naruto looked like he'd be betting everything on this last question. Not that he had any choice in the matter, since she was fairly certain that he had not jotted down a single thing since the test began.

"Yes, but before that, there's one thing I must say…" Ibiki said like the closet drama queen he was, "There will be one special rule for this last question."

_Figures!_ She thought angrily at how the examiners seemed to enjoy making the rest of them sweat.

It was just as she was thinking that the special rule was about to be revealed when the door to the room opened to reveal the Sand ninja and the fake examiner. Hagane had tipped her off to the truth about counterfeit examiner right at the beginning but she had chosen not to expose the truth, mostly because she figured that the other examiners and Ibiki already knew that it was a phony and weren't doing anything about it so why should she make a fuss.

"You're lucky. You're puppet show didn't have to go to waste." Ibiki said, validating her theory in one shot, "Oh well, sit down."

Waiting until the dumbass Sand ninja sat down, she once again awaited the special rule that would either be a problem or just another hidden test for the Genin present.

"I will now explain. This is…a hopeless rule." Ibiki said once again with too much drama, "First, you are all going to choose if you wish to take this tenth problem or not."

"Choose?" Asked the blonde bitch from the Sand Village. "What happens if we don't take the tenth problem?"

"If you choose not to take it, your points will be reduced to zero." Ibiki replied, revealing to all that they had no real choice at all, "In other words, you will fail. Your two other teammates will fail along with you."

This, of course, set off a storm of whispering and exclamations of shock throughout those who had managed to endure until now.

"And there is the other rule." Ibiki said, proving himself to be a liar since there was only suppose to be one rule added to the mix, "If you choose to take it and you get it wrong, you will lose the privilege to take the Chuunin exam forever."

Naturally this raised the tension in the room by quite a bit and, like the baka who was, her brother, Kiba was the first to stand up and protest. He was so easy to provoke it was clear that his more animal side, the side that all Inuzuka clan members had, had a stronger grip on his behavior than most. Not that she was entirely immune to her bestial side, but she at least had good reasons for losing her cool and kicking some ass.

"What kind of dumb rule is that?!" Kiba exclaimed while pointing at the chief examiner Ibiki, "There should be those here who have taken the Chuunin exam in the past!"

This, of course, only caused the sadist to laugh and she had to admit that there was a funny side to it all. Her idiot brother actually thought that they did the Chuunin exam the exact same way every time it was held. He had no clue that these guys mixed things up where they could, just so there could be no way that anyone who passed the exam could pass what they know to the next generation. An effective way to put a stop to any unauthorized cheating.

"You were unlucky. This year, **I** am making the rules." Ibiki said, making it clear that all the old rules were dead as far as he was concerned, "That is why I gave you the option of quitting. Those who are not confident can choose to not take it and take the exam next time or the time after that."

This was followed by more malevolent laughter that sent the stress levels of some even higher.

"Let us begin then." Ibiki said as though he were an executioner who had just finished sharpening his axe, "Those who will not be taking this tenth question, raise your hands. After we confirm your numbers, we will have you leave."

A period of silence followed in which many of the Genin around her looked like they were weighing the odds in their heads before coming to a decision.

"I…I quit! I won't take it!" Spoke a Genin next to Naruto.

Like the first domino in an elaborate display falling over, so did more and more Genin begin to bow out with their teammates. There were quite a few and that meant fewer opponents to get by when the next part of the exam. Hopefully there would be enough tough opponents left over that they'd put up a good fight when she faced off against them. Then it happened, something she predicted would happen but thought that it might not, Uzumaki Naruto raised his hand in the air and looked like he was ready to follow the rest of the quitters out the door.

Then something happened that she hadn't thought she'd see after seeing the blonde boy sweat himself silly.

Naruto slammed his raised hand down on the desk in front of him and said "Screw you! I'm not going to run away! I'll take this problem! Even if I become a Genin forever, I'm going to become a Hokage no matter what anyway! I'm not scared!"

_Heh! Kid's got spirit._ She thought with a grin of respect, _Not a lot of brains, but definitely spirit._

However this did not change the look on Ibiki's face as the sadistic man made one more pass over the remaining Genin.

"I will ask one more time. This is the choice that will impact your life." Ibiki said ominously, "If you want to quit, now is the chance."

"I'm not going to take back my words." Naruto said with the utmost determination, "That's my 'Way of the Ninja'."

The words made quite an impact on the others as they wiped away all the uncertainty that had been in the room up until then. A kid promising that he'd become Hokage even if he stayed a Genin for the rest of his life in the Konoha records room. More than ever before, Hana had to respect that the kid was willing to make a bold statement like he had and then stand by it with such conviction.

"Nice determination. Then for the First Phase of the exam, everyone here passes!!" Ibiki said, milking the drama and the moment for everything it was worth.

This floored **EVERYONE**.

Even she had not seen this little twist coming.

EVERYONE passed?

"Wait, what's the meaning of that?" asked Sakura with her egghead mind no doubt having trouble handling what had just been said, "We pass already? What about the tenth question?"

"There was no such thing to begin with." Ibiki said with a chuckle and a smile, "Or you can call the two-choice question the tenth question."

"What?" Sakura said in complete bafflement.

"Hey! So what were those previous nine problems?! It was all a waste!" The blonde Sand bitch exclaimed angrily at the development.

"No, it's not. The nine problems accomplished their purpose." Ibiki said, looking out the window for the moment, "The purpose to test each individual's information gathering skills."

"Information gathering skills?" Blonde Bitch inquired with some lack of understanding.

"First, this test's purpose lies in the first rule in that your pass-fail decision is based on your three-person teams." Ibiki explained while surveying the class, "By giving that idea, we have given you an unprecedented amount of pressure to try and not be a nuisance to your team. But these test problems cannot be solved by you Genins. So, most of the people here must have come to the conclusion 'I have to cheat to get points'. In other words, this exam assumed that everyone was going to cheat. So, we snuck in two Chuunins who knew the answers to be targets of cheating. But those who just cheated like a fool failed, of course. Why?"

With that last question Ibiki removed his headband forehead protector and revealed that there were more scars on his head than the ones visible on his face.

"Information can have greater value than life at times, and in missions and battlefields information is contested with the lives of people." Ibiki said with utmost seriousness and personal experience.

_Ugh! Did he have to show us __**that**__!?_ Ayeka thought as she couldn't help but be both disgusted and horrified at the burn makes, screw holes and cut marks visible on the man's head.

"The information that an enemy gets after being noticed by a third person will not necessarily be accurate." Ibiki said as he put his bandana forehead protector back on, "Remember this. Getting incorrect information can cause great damage to your teammates and village. So, we made you all gather information in the form of cheating. We kicked out those who were lacking in that field. That's what went on."

"But I still can't agree to that last question," Blonde Sand Bitch said with half of her original anger.

"But this tenth question was the main question of this First Phase." Ibiki explained, looking at the blonde Sand bimbo.

"What do you mean?" Asked Sakura, obviously not quite getting the reasons the chief examiner had for using the methods he did.

"Let me explain. The tenth question was a 'take or not take' choice. Needless to say, it was a painful two-choice problem." Ibiki said, holding up two fingers to indicate the two paths a Genin could have taken for the tenth question, "Those who did not take it failed with their teams. If you chose to take it, and could not answer it, your right to take the exam would have been taken away forever. It was a very insincere problem.

"How about this two-choice problem…" Ibiki said as he began to pace back and forth at the front of the classroom, "Let's assume that you have become a Chuunin. Your mission is to capture a secret document. The number of enemy ninja, their abilities and their armaments are unknown. Also there may be traps that the enemy ninja have set up. Now, will you accept this mission or not?

"Just because your life and the lives of your teammates may be in danger, are you able to avoid dangerous missions?" Ibiki asked, presumably rhetorically, "The answer is no. There are missions that carry heavy risks but cannot be avoided. The ability to show your courage to your teammates when needed and the ability to get through a bad situation…that is what we look for in a Chuunin, a squad leader."

"Those who cannot bet their fate in a critical situation, those who give up when given the chance because there is a next year and let their minds sway over an uncertain future, are fools that have no right to become a Chuunin." Ibiki said with a firmness that could not be ignored, "That is what I believe. I am saying that you here who have chosen to take it gave the right answer for the difficult tenth question. You can deal with the difficulties you will face. You have broken through the entrance. The First Phase of the Chuunin selection exam ends now. I wish you luck."

Naturally that was when that baka Naruto began to let everyone know how excited he was to have passed the First Phase by yelling like an idiot.

Fortunately, five seconds, later he was upstaged by an even bigger idiot when that pervert Ebisu crashed through the window in what was probably meant to be a dramatic and impressive entrance.

Yeah.

Right.


	10. Begin Phase 2, The Forest of Death

The Next Day, Outside the 'Forest of Death', Xander's P

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material shown herein. It is the rightful property of the original creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this at all. I only do this for my own enjoyment and for the enjoyment of my fellow fanfic readers.

&

_**The Next Day, Outside the 'Forest of Death', Xander's P.O.V**_

"Forest of Death?" Xandere muttered with some mild surprise/disappointment, "Who the hell named this place? A Dungeons and Dragons fanatic?"

Now that he had met the person known as Ebisu, he had to admit that the guy was a complete moron and it was perfectly feasible for him to be a pervert like Ayeka claimed nine days before. Fortunately, though, they'd just have to deal with him for the next ten minutes or so while he explained the rules as well as the objective of this phase of the exam. If it went longer than that, he might be willing to just hop the fence and take his chances with the animals he heard coming from the foreboding forest. After all, at least all those animals would want to do was either eat you or chase you and Xander was used to things like that back in Sunnydale. None of the baddies back home were so cruel that they tried to talk you to death or suffocate you with their arrogant attitude. They just made with the standard threats, maybe a minute or so of posturing, and then everyone made with the fighting, just like always.

"Now, before we begin this illustrious second phase of the Chuunin Selection Exam, I shall pass out these to everyone." Ebisu said as if he was some kind of big shot and they should be blessed to be in his presence.

Looking at the papers the man pulled out, Xander could see the title at the top of the page and wondered just what the examiners needed 'consent forms' for.

"These are consent forms. Those planning on going any further with this most honored of exams must sign these." Ebisu said with a tone of seriousness better suited for a play.

Ever the one to ask the obvious question, Naruto inquired as to why they had to sign the consent forms.

"From here on, kiddo, people will most likely die." Ebisu said in a tone that hinted at one person in particular he'd like to see die in the forest, "Therefore, we need everyone's consent before we can begin the second phase in earnest. Otherwise I, Ebisu, would be held responsible for everything that happened afterwards. Hahahahaa!"

_This guy __**definitely**__ has the most annoying laugh I have ever heard and, considering I've heard Andrew Wells laugh, that's saying something._ He thought as he prayed to God for someone to shut Ebisu up.

"Oh, you have a **great** deal to be held responsible for, Ebisu-baka." Ayeka said from her position to the right of him, "But seeing as how me and my teammates have an exam to ace I'll cut you some slack from here on out."

"Hmph. Now I shall begin the explanation of the Second Phase of this time honored exam." Ebisu said, bristling briefly at Ayeka's words, "To be blunt, you will all go through an extreme survival match."

From there, Ebisu went through several mini-explanations involving the terrain they'd be dealing with and the fact that the objective was to obtain a complete set of scrolls. One was a bone white scroll, the Scroll of Heaven, and the other was the blue scroll, the Scroll of Earth, with each team being handed a single random scroll behind a curtain after they turned in their consent forms. No one would know which scroll you had unless you let it be known and, once you entered the Forest of Death, it was anything goes as far as how a team got the other scroll from another team, from simply asking politely to taking it to an opposing team apart piece by bloody, fatal piece, it was all acceptable to a certain degree. He was certain they would intervene if a Genin forgot the objective of the exam and just kept on killing people without taking their scroll. Right? Then, of course, there was the one hundred and twenty hour time limit for acquiring both scrolls and making it to the central tower. Quitting was also not an option, which was explained when Vest-boy or Shikamaru as Hana had told him on his way there an hour earlier. That kid must think **breathing** is too bothersome and would probably stop doing it entirely if he could without dying.

By the time all the explanations were laid out, it looked like the trek through the woods would be dangerous in every way with no true safe zone except for the tower. Obviously this was the practical part of the Chuunin Selection Exam where you had to put what you learned from the academy and in the field to use. Still, Xander was confident that they'd get the two scrolls and make it safely to the tower without anyone getting seriously injured in the process. With Hana's mutts and Ava helping them keep tabs on the environment and the teamwork training they'd all undergone, they'd be a match for any team out there.

Getting Hana and Ayeka to follow him over to a tree, Xander figured it'd be a good idea to lay down some kind of strategy from the get go rather than come up with one when they were already in the danger zone.

"So what do you guys think?"

"This is going to be a breeze!" Hana said with her usual unassailable confidence, "With my girls sniffing out the enemy and your overgrown feather duster keeping an eye peeled, surprise attacks won't be an issue. As for the rest…well you guys can just sit back and let me do all the work. Beating these rookies isn't going to take long."

"Yeah, like I'd let you get all the glory!" Ayeka said with a snort of contempt before warily glancing at the forest, "We'll just attack the first team we come across, grab their scroll and then head for the tower. I bet we'll get there before anyone else!"

_Not as 'nice' to each other I'd like but it's better than it was in the beginning._ He thought as he took out a pen to write his name down on the consent form.

"So what's your plan, 'Leader'?" Hana asked with clear contempt in her voice concerning his position.

"Simple. We head for the treeline surrounding the tower and lay out a mine field of traps and wait for the enemy to come to us." He said in a slightly hushed voice so that no one else would be able to listen in easily.

"What?! That's the worst plan I've ever heard!!" Hana exclaimed angrily, getting the attention of every team in the immediate area.

"SHHHH!! You want everyone to get it in their heads to eavesdrop Tarzanna?" He asked harshly while taking a quick glance around to see who had more than a lingering interest in them.

"If it'll get you to drop this pussy plan of yours, then **yeah!**" Hana replied, only bringing her voice down to conversational volume, "Why take the easy way out when we can just kick the asses of everyone we come across and take their scroll!?"

"**Because,** dog girl, if we want to pass this Phase of the exam in the best condition possible, we need a plan to get what we need with minimum muss or fuss." Ayeka replied as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, "If we get all beat up, then it won't matter if we make it to the tower with both scrolls. You heard the pervert, didn't you? If even one of us is too banged up to fight when we reach the tower, then we fail automatically. Xander-sama's plan is, as usual, perfect for achieving the objective."

He had to roll his eyes at that because that was the same thing more or less that Ayeka said about all his plans, regardless of whether or not his battle plans worked out or not. Obviously she was taking the 'he can do no wrong' method of seducing him and wasn't about to give it up anytime soon. Too bad for her as he actually preferred women who had the…confidence to stand up to him when they knew he was making a mistake. One might have thought that that made Hana his preferable girl but then there was the fact that she couldn't stand him and he wasn't overly fond of the way she always called him 'Wannabe'. In the end, he just hoped that the blonde didn't try and jump his bones while they were in the forest because dying with his pants down was definitely not the way he wanted to leave this world.

"It's time to trade your forms for a scroll," Came a voice from the booth that had been curtained off.

"Well it looks like it's time. Let's do this!" Xander said, trying to get his team pumped for what was to come.

"Hai, hai! Let's get this camping trip over with." Hana said with a lack of enthusiasm that was matched only by Buffy's lack of interest in studying.

"We're gonna win this! I guarantee it!" Ayeka said at the other end of the spectrum before turning to him with a weird look in her eyes, "Then maybe the two of us can have a little victory celebration, eh, Xander-sama?"

"Ah…maybe…yeah." Was all he could say under the baleful glare coming from Hana.

They had reached the halfway point to the booth when that idiot Ebisu apparently singled them out and came over to say something.

"So you three delinquents actually managed to get past Ibiki's little test, did you?" Ebisu asked rhetorically with mocking amazement in his voice, "I guess the man really has taken one too many hits to the head lately if he let you three pass. Honestly, I don't know what Hokage-sama was thinking allowing thugs like you to participate in this exam!"

"Oh yeah? Well Hokage-sama obviously felt he needed to lighten the mood for the Second Phase if he assigned a clown like you as the head examiner for it." He fired back in a completely casual tone of voice.

This definitely hit a nerve with the shades-wearing examiner as a light version of 'muderous intent' began to emerge from the guy.

"On the contrary, Xander-san. Hokage-sama selected me as the examiner for the Second Phase of the exam because he knew I could keep things running smoothly." Ebisu said in a light tone before looking right at the Uchiha with dead serious eyes, "To dispatch the bad elements **when** they do something to stain the exam's honorable reputation."

Xander could tell by the man's tone of voice that not only was he deadly serious but that the asshole was referring to him **specifically** when with the description of 'bad elements'. He wanted to believe that all it meant was that he was being lumped in with Hana and Ayeka who had something of a sour reputation in the village. However, for some reason, the look in the man's eyes made him believe he was being singled out for some reason.

_Time to test that theory._ He thought before saying, "Yeah, well, that's probably as good a job as you're capable of. Handling crap and shoveling it where ever they tell you to throw it."

This only made the man's eyes harden all the more and, before the eyes of him and his teammates, the chief examiner of the Second Phase of the exam disappeared. He didn't stay gone (much to their regret) as he reappeared right behind the American Uchiha and leaned down to deliver a message only for him.

"Don't take me lightly, **punk!**" Ebisu whispered harshly into his hear, "Hokage-sama might be willing to give you the benefit of a doubt but I won't, **traitor spawn!**"

"What? What did you call me?" he said in an equally low voice but tinged with warning.

"You heard me. Like breeds like as far as I'm concerned." Ebisu said with true venom in his voice, "A traitor will only breed future traitors!"

Now THAT was unmistakable and unforgivable!

Turning quickly to face the man, he did his best to keep his temper in check since he knew that attacking the bastard wouldn't get him anywhere. Not only was he unlikely to win a fight with the pervert but it would also make him look bad to the ruling council of the village. Instead, he would try and fight the guy with words rather than with jutsus and try to be satisfied with that.

"Apparently Hokage-sama disagrees with you, asshole." He said with sharp eyes and a chill in his voice, "Are you saying that he was wrong to give me the benefit of a doubt? Are you disagreeing with the wisdom of the man who rules this village and has years of experience on you?"

"I have absolute faith in Hokage-sama's ability to govern this village, trash!" Ebisu said a little louder than before, allowing both Hana and Ayeka to hear what was being said, "However there are times when I think he is being **overly** generous to the wrong people. There are also times when he sees good in people where in fact there is nothing but darkness. I'm sure you'll become good friends with the dark when they throw your traitorous hide into prison where it belongs. After all, it's only a matter of time before that bitch traitor's filthy blood causes you to follow in her footsteps."

"Why you--!" Xander snarled, about to really let the guy have it, but froze when a hand clamped down on his shoulder.

"Is there something wrong here, Ebisu?" Anko-sensei asked from her position behind him.

"No, of course not, I was just giving your team some last minute advice for the Second Phase of the exam." Ebisu replied without a trace of the venom in his voice, "After all, this is their big shot at moving on to becoming Chuunins. I'm sure they'll be able to overcome all obstacles both from the other teams as well as their own **internal** problems."

While Anko-sensei's presence helped in keeping his temper from hitting the danger zone, Xander still wanted to kick this bastard's ass!

"Then why don't we get the first obstacle out of the way sooner rather than later." Ayeka said with some anger as she pulled something out of her equipment pouch, "Starting with this little thing I've been holding onto."

Looking down, he recognized it as the camera that the Mishima girl had been holding at the river the day that…the painful misunderstanding happened. Looking at Ebisu, he could tell that the pervert recognized it as well. However when he turned to look at Anko-sensei, Xander could tell that the older woman hadn't been made privy to the contents of the camera or perhaps that the pervert had been peeping on Ayeka that day.

A feral smile blossomed on his face as he awaited what he was certain was about to happen.

"Take a look at what this hentai does in his spare time, Anko-sensei." Ayeka said before passing the camera to her Jounin teacher.

While he wasn't in a position to see the images being displayed on the screen on the back of the camera, Anko's face pretty much told him the entire story. It went from shocked, to mildly disturbed and then went murderous, which was probably when she came across pictures of herself. Then, as if a switch had been flipped, her face went completely unreadable and he knew it was a sign of Mt. St. Anko preparing to blow her top.

"You three go and submit your consent forms so you can get your scroll," Anko said in a casual tone of voice but never looking away from an increasingly nervous Ebisu. "I know you'll all do me proud in there."

"You bet! Ayeka? Hana? Let's get going." He said seeing that the girls knew the same thing he did about the present situation.

Waiting until they were a respectable distance away, they then made a dash for the booth as the level of murderous intent coming from Anko-sensei skyrocketed.

"You **PERVERT!**" She bellowed before lunging at him only to miss by millimeters, "I'm gonna **KILL** YOU!"

With that, both his Jounin teacher and the chief examiner for the Second Phase of the exam ran off, the latter running for his life and the former running to **end** Ebisu's life.

It was a pity he wouldn't be able to see how it all ended.

&

_**Thirty-Three Minutes Later, Just Inside the Forest of Death **_

_There. That should separate them enough that I can walk into their midst without a problem._ He/she thought as she cancelled the jutsu that had blown the members of Team 7 in random directions.

With that done, all that was left was to give orders to her/his two subordinates even though it had been mentioned beforehand.

"Go seek out Team Anko and test them." He/she ordered with finality in her/his voice, "Pay extra attention to their new member. He is the one that interests me the most."

"Hai!" Both of her/his subordinates said before vanishing to find the members of Team Anko.

He/she knew that her primary target at the moment was Uchiha Sasuke, but she/he couldn't help but wonder if Xander-kun would prove to be the better choice in the end. She/He had already managed to learn the majority of what had happened back in Sunnydale and had been impressed by how the young man had managed to execute the B-ranked water jutsu. Not only was that a technique usually only performed by high ranking Chuunin or Jounin, but a ninja usually needed a large body of water to execute it. It had been simple enough to determine that the young Uchiha had tapped into the water being channeled through the pipes and drains of the fountain. However, as the weeks passed and further investigation had been done on the boy, it was discovered that his knowledge of the Art of the Ninja was random and incomplete. This had been odd but nothing that he/she couldn't cure with a little private tutoring. It had been just before she/he had been about to initiate her plan to lure the young man to Konoha in time for the Chuunin exam that the Uchiha had left on his own.

More and more time passed and he/she was beginning to wonder whether or not Fate itself was helping to bring him/her what he/she desired to where she/he desired it to be.

Now, though, the time had come to see whether his/her two candidates were truly worthy of the role they would play in her/his future plans. Jirobo, Sakon and Ukon would be the ones to test Xander-kun while he/she would test Sasuke personally. Should the Uchiha from America prove to be skilled enough, she/he would 'interview' him after he/she had finished with Itachi's little brother. In both their cases, she/he had already laid down preliminary plans for how each encounter would go down with Sasuke's being a bit more thorough due to the fact that Xander had only appeared months ago whereas Sasuke had been known to him/her much longer. However, the two things she/he had finalized beyond a reasonable doubt was to whom her/his two **gifts** would go to.

As he/she leapt into the trees and began to make her/his way towards Sasuke-kun, he/she couldn't help but laugh at the…unique balance her gifts would establish between the two Uchiha.

&

_**Forest of Death, Twenty Minutes Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

"Hey, Wannabe! We got incoming!" Hana said from his right as they leapt from tree branch to tree branch.

"How many?" He asked while making sure not to miss his landing points.

"Two and they're gaining fast!" Hana replied with some concern, since they were going pretty fast themselves.

"Alright, it's time to see if our teamwork training was worth it." He said as he made a fast pass over of the area they were approaching, "Let's do a three way scatter and concealment. Wait until we get a good look at them before we do anything else. Ayeka you hide high. You'll be our sniper and possible distracter. Hana you and your partners will wait until they get here and then encircle them."

"What'll you be doing, fearless leader?" Hana asked with a sneer, obviously not thinking much of his choice of tactics.

"I'll be the one to grab their attention and start things off." He replied, hoping she'd be happy with him taking the brunt of things, "Once they expose a vital spot to you, bounce in to take advantage of it. Make it a one shot deal since I don't want this duo to come up with any tactics of their own."

"Fine by me." She said as though she had no doubt she could take out the enemies in one hit, "Just don't let yourself get beat up too badly. We need you on your feet if we want to make it past the Second Phase of the exam."

"No problem." He said as the three of them split up, going the separate ways but remaining close to the split up point.

Zipping around the thickest tree trunk he could find, he pressed himself tightly against it and waited. While waiting for the two pursuers to catch up to them, he tried to figure out the best way to deal with them immediately rather than wait for them to show up. Considering the speed that the enemy was exhibiting, their evasive abilities would be pretty good as well as their skill at getting in close to an enemy. Any attack he sent their way would have to be on par or superior to that speed if he wanted it to work. Ninjutsu weren't a viable option since it'd take time to form the hand seals and it was possible the effects might block Ayeka's line of sight. Taijutsu was also unfavorable since two on one were lousy odds and with the speed the bad guys were displaying, he wasn't sure he'd be able to stalemate them even with Sharingan. That left only Genjutsu and the effectiveness of one of those would depend on the strength of the target's mind and their knowledge of how to break such an illusion. Still, it would at least hold them in place for a second or two and that would be enough for Hana to get into position and for Ayeka to pick her targets.

_Got the perfect jutsu in mind, too._ He thought as he brought his hands close together in preparation for performing the technique.

Waiting for them to arrive, Xander only had to stay still for five minutes before two figures landed in the clearing behind him. Peeking around briefly, he was able to identify them as Grass ninja based on their clothes and what he could see of their forehead protectors. Not good. For Grass ninja, the forest would provide them with many opportunities and give them a sizeable advantage, given the amount of vegetation and grass around. Neither one seemed particularly bulky and that lent further evidence to his theory that they were quick on their feet as well as agile. Still, one should never trust what they see in the ninja world, so he'd wait until he bore witness to their abilities with his own eyes.

Putting his game face on, he surged around the tree trunk, moving as fast as he could to get within maximum range of the justu he'd chosen and, once everything was perfect, he made his move.

Forming the rat hand seal he declared, "MAGEN: NARAKUMI NO JUTSU!"

He could tell that his technique had hit them when a look of fear appeared on the one without a mask on and hoped that Hana would take this as her cue to make a move.

"SHIKYAKU NO JUTSU!" Hana's voice shouted and, seconds later, he watched as a distinctly more feral looking Hana charged out with her three partners emerging as well from the three other directions.

Knowing that this move would only keep the Grass ninja back for a short time, Xander began to move around the periphery to cut off their escape routes. One by one he placed explosive tags on key trees around the perimeter and keyed them to light up if someone got within ten feet of them. He had hoped that there was a way to key the tags into specific people's chakra so he could make sure Ayeka or Hana didn't set them off but apparently there wasn't. He'd have to make sure that they didn't stray too close to the blast points or they'd ruin the entire purpose of setting the tags in the first place.

"BOKUSOU: MIDORIIRO HARI NO JUTSU," cried the masked Grass ninja.

With that, the grass that was on the ground beneath the feet of the Grass ninja went rigid as steel and flung themselves into the air as though thrown by invisible hands. Blocking them with a kunai was impossible due to the sheer number of them and, if they truly were as strong as steel, then getting hit by them was going to smart. His only shot was to pull off a jutsu he'd only seen performed once by Taiji and had no idea if he could perform it adequately himself. Still, it was the only chance they had.

Forming the correct seals he declared, "ARASHI KANMON NO JUTSU!!"

While not as stable as he would have liked, Xander sighed in relief as the kunai he had taken the time to tie mono-wire to shot out from where he'd tucked them beneath his belt. Crisscrossing in front of him and using the two nearest trees as anchor points, the electric blue energy soon manifested and, just as the green needles were about to reach him, the jutsu he'd copied from Taiji took effect. Like hitting a brick wall, the needles bounced off and fell to the ground with the chakra within them being absorbed into the barrier to make it stronger. As soon as the jutsu ended, though, he decided to let the ninja see just what they were up against as far as he was concerned in order to give Hana time to recover. He could see out of the corner of his eye that she had opted for the 'deflect-the-needles-with-kunai' approach and, while she had blocked a surprising number of them, Tarzanna hadn't escaped being hurt entirely.

_Serpent, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger. _He thought before declaring, "KATON: GOUKAKYU NO JUTSU!!"

Unleashing a great fireball at the Grass ninja, he wasn't completely surprised that they'd dodged it but that worked in his favor somewhat. With them split up, it would be harder for them to double team him and might give Ayeka the opening she'd need to take one of them out. His prediction was proven true when a volley of shuriken and kunai almost succeeded in hitting the non-mask one. Sadly, his prediction about these guys being fast was proven true when the ugly one managed to use the substitution technique to evade the attack. Looking around the immediate area where buttface had been, Xander tried to get a lock on the guy's location while Hana attacked Mr. Mask with renewed ferocity. Hopefully Tarzanna could keep the skeletal-looking guy busy long enough to allow him to locate the other Grass ninja. He only got a second of warning in the form of an avian cry from Ava, who had evidently turned back from her point scouting position in the air, to alert him to the one direction he hadn't looked in. Whipping around and using the momentum of the motion to increase the strength behind the technique he performed the Konoha Shōfū, slamming his foot into ugly's jaw.

_Might as well build on what I already have going._ He thought as he immediately executed the Kage Buyō technique, placing himself right behind Mr. Monkey Butt.

"Here's an original move that you're not going like one bit, ugly!" he said before beginning the combo that he'd used against Manzo.

Jabbing with his fingers the pressure point on his target's back, Xander then grabbed ugly's arm and, after swinging around to the front of his prey, twisted it completely before bringing his right leg back to break it. However, in a move that caught him completely by surprise, Ugly actually moved and grabbed the foot before it went halfway towards its target.

"Nice try, kid, but let me show you just how far you have to go to beat a Genin like me." Mr. Dog Butt said before doing a second impossible feat by untwisting the arm in Xander's grip.

Before he could get his head back in the game, Ugly swung him around so his was the back closer to the ground and it was then that the American Uchiha felt his first bit of pain for the Second Phase of the exam.

"MOKUZAI KUJIKU!!" The man yelled, delivering an axe kick that felt like someone had slammed a log into his chest.

Xander barely had ten seconds to contemplate the pain before a new one was introduced to his back as he slammed into the ground below. For a moment his lungs forgot how to take in oxygen but, thankfully, seeing ugly coming on down with a foot raised to cave his skull in proved to be a great motivator. Rolling to the side and using his left to push himself into a crouching position, Xander was given a good idea of what would have happened if he had remained where he had landed. With the force of a machine putting a new telephone pole into the ground, Pig Face drove his foot knee deep into the ground before pulling it out. Then, proving the speed estimate once again, the man went on the offensive since it appeared the butthead focused mostly on taijutsu moves, leaving his masked partner to perform the ninjutsu moves. Deciding that he could no longer afford to hold back, Xander activated his Sharingan and, by channeling chakra to his legs, moved to meet his opponent head on.

"MOKUZAI TSUPPARI!" Ugly declared before unleashing a palm thrust that looked like it would have been painful if it had connected.

Fortunately the bloodline limit of the Uchiha clan pulled its weight well and gave him just enough warning to duck under the attack and deliver a knee thrust to the ape-man's gut. Using the man's temporary disorientation to his advantage, Xander grabbed the arm meant to deliver the palm thrust and used it to throw the gorilla to the ground. Not wanting to let things go any further with this taijutsu expert, he decided to once more tap into the moves he had learned from the fight with the Tarakan assassins.

"RAIKOU BAKUHA NO JUTSU!!"

With a split second flash of light, a blast of lighting shot out from his hands and while he had been afraid that this too would be dodged, it looked like it had indeed connected as he saw the man go into convulsions and scream in pain. Stopping the technique just before it would have become lethal, Xander watched the jackass carefully for any sign that the man would resume the fight. When nothing happened, he breathed a sigh of relief that at least one of the enemies appeared to be down for the count leaving only one to go before this battle would be ended.

As it turned out, he had defeated his enemy just in the nick of time as he heard the scream of Ayeka and turned to see her fall from her sniping branch, wrapped in what appeared to be a vine or branch of some kind. Without hesitation he charged across the battlefield, putting every ounce of chakra he could into his legs in order to increase his speed in order to reach her before she hit the ground. Right about then, though, Murphy decided to throw in his two cents by having the fight that had currently going on between Hana, her mutts and the masked Grass ninja move right into his path. Knowing that veering around them would only take away the precious seconds he needed to get to Ayeka, he decided just to go right through the two of them. Not decreasing his speed in the slightest, he made himself a path by grabbing one of the masked ninja's arms, used it like a gymnastic vault table, kicking the guy in the face and then landing so he could continue on his way to save Ayeka. Looking ahead, he could see that the blonde projectile mistress was reaching the ten foot mark from the ground and if he wanted to save her, he had no choice but to dive for it. Hoping it didn't aggravate the place on his chest where the ugly jackass hit with his log crush technique, he dove forward hoping that his timing wasn't off.

He needn't have worried.

With his own growing skills as a ninja and his Sharingan helping out, he caught her just as she passed the five foot mark and cushioned her landing completely. Once the momentum he'd built up from the dive had played out, he didn't waste any time and immediately sliced through Ayeka's bindings with a kunai. As thick as they were, they were no match for the kunai he'd sharpened to a fine edge the entire morning prior to meeting up with the rest of the team for the Second Phase of the exam. While he had not known what the Second Phase entailed, he had figured that if the First Phase was a test of mental strength then it was only logical that the next be physical. Once he saw that the last of the vine restraining Ayeka had been removed, he immediately headed back in the direction of the battlefield confident that the blonde would follow. As he got clear of the vegetation, he was happy to see that his earlier interference in their match had knocked the tide of battle in Tarzanna's favor. Not only had she somehow turned her animal partners into copies of her feral self but, between the four of them, the masked Grass ninja didn't even have time to form seals for ninjutsus or genjutsus. However he wasn't about to believe they'd won just yet because, if his encounter with ugly jackass was any indicator, these guys were tougher than they let on.

This was proven when, out of nowhere and from a position where he couldn't quite see what was going on, the masked ninja somehow grabbed ahold of both Hana and one of her dogs and flung them into the remaining two as if they'd been academy brats. This was a level of speed and power that he hadn't seen so far with the two Grass ninjas and it made him wonder if they were truly facing two Genin. While it was true that being a Genin didn't set a specific limit to how far a ninja could progress, there was a certain range that people stayed in for the simple reason that their Jounin teachers hadn't taught them what they needed to know to proceed further. For these two to exhibit such elevated levels of physical ability and handling, three talented (in his opinion) Genin spoke of more than what met the eye.

_We have to take this up a notch if we want to get out of here with only bumps and bruises!_ He thought as he reluctantly chose to call out the name of a team combo they'd been practicing.

"Ayeka! Hana! Let's show him the Titan Tower combo!" He yelled as he prepared to get the ball rolling since it was his job to get things started.

Charging towards the masked grass ninja, he put himself in the mindset to be like a feather in the air in how he evaded the ninjutsu's and projectiles thrown at him. He moved only enough to evade the bulk of the attack without terribly altering his course and used side flips, forward rolls and spins at random to keep the enemy guessing. As soon as he closed to taijutsu range, he decided to use the same combo that Lee had used on him when they'd first met. A punch to act as a distraction since it was meant to be dodged before immediately shifting into a Konoha Shōfū to send the man into the air. The next move was Hana's but he didn't have time to make sure she was going to do it since he had to get up high really quick if he wanted to finish the combo. Once again channeling a large amount of chakra into his legs, he leapt as high up as he could which was quite high given the amount of energy he used. It was as he reached the apex of his leap that he heard Hana call out the name of the technique that made up her part of the combo.

"NIJUU GATSUGA!!" Hana cried out and, like tornadoes sprouting from the ground, the Inuzuka girl and her partners hit the masked ninja again and again.

However he knew that they weren't aiming directly for a finishing blow but rather to soften the Grass ninja up while also pushing the guy higher into the air. By the time gravity began to reclaim its hold on him, the masked ninja was almost at the same level as his toes. Thus came the time for him to execute a technique that Hokage-sama had told him to wait a few more years before using himself due to the great chakra required. However, after seeing how strong these two Grass ninja had turned out to be, he didn't want to take the chance that the fire technique Ryūka no Jutsu would fall short of the goal. Therefore he focused as never before and then opened his eyes fully prepared to perform the B-ranked jutsu.

_Serpent, Horse, Dragon, Rat, Ox, Tiger! _He thought before taking a deep breath and bringing his hand up to his mouth and declaring, "KATON: KARYU ENDAN!!"

Throwing forward his head a little bit, as though he was going to blow out some birthday candles, he unleashed the B-ranked ninjutsu, putting all his will into making it work correctly. At first it looked like he'd simply pulled off Ryuka no jutsu but once the fire had time to heat up it took on a white hot color, leaving the orange only at the edges. However the attack only lasted for two seconds past the color change before his chakra gave out, rendering him as weak as a kitten. Falling back to the ground, Xander hoped that one of the girls would be there to catch him because he had no idea if he still had the strength to land safely on the ground. Fortunately, since it was now Ayeka's turn to deal the deciding blow on the Grass ninja, Hana was now free and before he fell too far she grabbed him and made sure the two of them landed safely.

Just in time for the two of them to see Ayeka's trademark jutsu.

The fifty-two card blow up combo she called it.

It began with the girl leaping into the air right after his fire attack and, once she was in the best position, began to rapid-fire objects that looked like playing cards at the target. The secret came when the cards were out of her hand for two or three seconds because it was then that the weapons she had sealed into each card were released. Projectile weapons, melee weapons and even a variety of explosive tags and bombs were sealed into the cards. When they were almost at ground level, BOY did they make a bang that was almost certainly being heard everywhere. They also had the effect of seriously increasing the guy's acceleration those last few feet to the ground, causing a dust cloud to be produced on impact. Even then Ayeka didn't stop attacking until all fifty-two cards had been thrown and their payload delivered unto the masked Grass ninja. The blonde touched down a bit after the last boom and, aside from a little wear and tear with her clothes and some scrapes, she was probably in the best shape of the lot of them.

"That'll teach them never to mess with Team Anko! AHAHAHAHAHA!" Ayeka declared before laughing in a way that was probably meant to sound regal or high society.

To both him and Hana, though, it was worse than nails on a chalkboard.

It was then, though, that the Inuzuka girl decided to distract herself from the noise by tearing into him.

"What the **HELL** was that about, WANNABE!?" She asked angrily as she grabbed him by the front of his shirt, "That sure as **HELL** wasn't the **fuckin'** move you used when we practiced this combo!"

"Well…these guys were a lot tougher than I…than I thought so I figured it'd be…a good idea to up the power a **tiny** bit." He replied, both with fatigue and reluctance in his voice.

"A tiny bit? A **TINY** bit!?" Hana exclaimed in disbelief before pointing in the direction of where the masked ninja had landed, "Take a look at those scorch marks you cocky, overachieving **BAKA!** You could've fried me and the girls! If we hadn't gotten clear of the blast zone in time, we would have been **DEAD**!"

"Oh calm down Hana!" Ayeka said as she waltzed up to them and put a hand on his shoulder, "I agree that Xander-sama should've warned us he was changing the combo, but it all worked out in the end, didn't it? Those Grass ninjas are toast and we're still in one piece. I'd mark this as a win for Team Anko."

"What about the scroll, you bottle blonde?" Hana asked with plenty of anger still in her voice, "In case you've forgotten, we need a pair of them to pass this Phase of the exam. What if one of those two had it on them? It could be nothing but a pile of ash now!"

"Don't worry! They're not burned up that badly and if we did overdo it, then there are a couple of other teams we can get what we need from." Ayeka said with only a trace of concern in her voice before turning in the direction of the Grass ninja he'd defeated earlier, "Now let's check these guys' pockets for the scroll so we can—"

It was then, when Ayeka stopped in mid-sentence, that they knew something had happened and when they turned to look for themselves they too were shocked.

Instead of seeing two badly beaten bodies on the forest floor they saw large clumps of grass in the rough shape of their opponents. The one that he'd fought first was the least damaged but the one that had suffered their team combo was in pieces all over the place.

"Clones!? We've been fighting **CLONES!?**" Hana asked in disbelief and once again rising fury.

"Great! What else can go wrong?" Ayeka asked rhetorically before she clasped her hands behind her head.

Her answer came in the form of the tie that kept the front of her shirt up snapping, resulting in her showing everyone within eyesight just how blessed she was in the chest department.

He couldn't decide if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

Hana's KO punch pretty much settled it for him as he slipped off to dream land.

&

_**Forest of Death, Main Entrance/Exit, Two Hours Later, Anko's Point of View**_

"Damn! He passed out!" Anko growled as she looked at the unconscious form of the Second Phase's Chief Examiner, "And I still had **twenty** more things I wanted to do to him!"

Some might think that chasing and terrorizing a man for being a peeping tom and taking photos of innocent young ladies when their guard was down was mean. Some might think that thirty minutes of terrorizing would be more than adequate for such an offense. However, they would not be Mitarashi Anko and, as far as she was concerned, the job wasn't done until she ran out of things to do to the pervert. Considering her potent imagination and the number of times she's chosen to punish someone for being an asshole, she had quite a long list indeed. In fact, Ebisu should have been commended in a way since he almost made it all the way to the end of the list when all the others barely made it halfway. Still, it wouldn't have been nearly as fun to finish off the list if the guy was unconscious, so she'd have to wake him up quickly before she headed off to the tower to meet up with the other Jounin teachers. She was just about to look for a water bottle or something to splash in the guy's face but, before she could take a step, she sensed a shinobi presence approaching. Now at first, she wasn't too worried since, once she explained what the ecchi had been doing with his camera, no one would blame her for kicking his ass. However then she remembered that she had whacked the pervert in the head with said camera, losing the evidence in the process. Considering the fact that Ebisu was the chief examiner for the Second Phase and her team were known troublemakers, she didn't like her chances for getting off scot free without proof to back her up. So, before the presence could get within eyesight of the fool, she threw him up into the nearby tree and used two kunai to keep him there.

_There, embarrassing evidence removed and no one will be the wiser._ She thought as she awaited the incoming ninja so she could divert him or her away from the tree.

Her concealment move couldn't have been timed any better since, five seconds after putting Ebisu up in the tree, a spectacle-wearing ninja dressed in examiner clothes appeared with clipboard in hand.

"Anko-san! Where is Ebisu-sama?" The ninja asked with urgency in his voice, "We have an emergency on our hands!"

"Ah…I'm not…sure but perhaps you…could tell me what's wrong and I'll pass it along to him when I seem him." She said, trying to dissuade the shinobi from looking further for the idiot, "After all, I was in the running to be the chief examiner for the Second Phase of the exam, so I do have clearance for this sort of thing."

"Well we found some corpses…three of them," replied the ninja, sounding a bit relieved not to have to relate the information to Ebisu. "There is something strange about them. If you'll come with me I'll show you."

"Lead the way." She said, glad to put some distance between the two of them and Ebisu who, hopefully, wouldn't be regaining consciousness anytime soon.

With a surge of chakra they were off, leaping from tree branch to tree branch, heading towards the edge of the main village cemetery, if her guess was right. In a way, it sort of made sense to commit a murder there, if it was murder that caused there to be three bodies to be left there. While it was true that there were regular visitors to the graves of loved ones, ever since the third great ninja war ended, the number of funerals had gone way down. Thus, if a person timed it right, they could pull off a murder in complete privacy with no one being the wiser for hours.

They arrived ten minutes later and, judging from the positions of the bodies, whoever they were they'd been taken completely by surprised and given little chance to resist. Landing beside two other examiners, it only took them a second to notice her.

"Anko-san? I though you were supposed to be getting Ebisu-sama." Kotetsu asked the ninja who had brought her to the murder scene.

"Well he wasn't there and, well, Anko-san was going to be the chief examiner for the Second Phase so I figured she'd be good enough."

"You just didn't want to suffer through one of Ebisu's high and mighty speeches!" Kotetsu said with contempt, though it wasn't directed at the person he was looking at, "Ever since he got appointed chief examiner, his ego has been bigger than the Akimichi clan's appetites **combined!**"

"Listen! You three can gripe about Ebisu later." Anko said, wanting to get the act out of the way so she could get to the tower to greet Xander and the others, "What's the emergency? I mean, three bodies in the cemetery that look like they've been murdered is serious, but more something you'd contact ANBU for."

"Well…from their possessions and IDs, we found out that they are ninja from the Hidden Village of Grass who registered for the Chuunin Selection Exam." Kotetsu explained gravely, making the importance known immediately, "But as you can see…"

"Their faces are gone." She whispered as she got a good look at one of the faces of the murdered ninja.

"Yes. Their faces are gone as if they were melted off." Kotetsu said with horror lacing his words at the heinous scene before him.

With those words an unforgiving chill of fear ran through her body and a flickering flame of anger also blossomed within the ice. She knew, she knew who had done this because she knew him all too well after being his student for so long. While she had never seen him perform this technique on a living person, he had demonstrated something similar on a tree during one of their missions. However to do **this** to a person… she just hoped the three were already dead when the technique was performed or the pain they must have gone through would have been beyond imagination. If he was indeed here…

"Show me the pictures of these Grass ninja." She ordered, wanting to make certain that her suspicions regarding the beginning of the Second Phase were right, "It should be in their applications."

"Right away," responded the ninja who had brought her to the scene of the crime.

Passing over three pictures to her, she looked through each of them and instantly matched them to three ninja she had seen with the other Genin waiting for that pervert Ebisu to start the Second Phase. She couldn't tell which one **he** had chosen to hide under but it was probably the one that was designated as the team leader for the Grass Genins. Whatever the case, she had no doubt that something sinister was in the works if **he** was here and if they were to have any chance of putting a stop to it they had to act quickly.

"This is serious." She said to the three other ninja present, "You three let Hokage-sama know about this right away. And then request for a mobilization of at least two ANBU squads to the Forest of Death. I will go after these guys. Got it?"

"Hai!" All three of them said before leaping so quickly to fulfill their orders that it looked to the untrained eye as though they had simply vanished.

Once they were gone, she could finally release the pent up fear and anger that she had done her best to conceal in their presence. Her old teacher, the one who took her under his wing after she'd graduated from the academy, had returned to Konoha after years of being away. Reaching up with her left hand, she pressed it against the last 'gift' he gave her, the irremovable symbol of her connection to him, and prayed that she could move quickly enough to stop whatever it was he intended to do.

_You won't have your way this time!_ She thought as she leapt into the trees and made best speed for the Forest of Death, _I won't let you!_

&

_**Forest of Death, Same Time, Orochimaru's Perspective**_

_I wonder if Sasuke-kun will be able to survive the cursed seal? _Orochimaru thought as he recalled that only one in ten humans infected with it survived.

It didn't matter anyway since he would bestowing a similar gift upon Xander-kun soon after his subordinates returned to deliver their report on the American's abilities. In the end, all that mattered was that one of the two young Genin survived the seal ingraining itself into their very being, as it was this that made it impossible to remove once implanted and only barely possible to suppress with another seal. The only problem being that the process was generally so painful that the human mind had a high probability of breaking unless it had something stronger to focus on. For Sasuke, he knew it would be the desire to exact vengeance on his older brother, Itachi, for the slaughter of their clan several of years prior. In Xander's case, though, it'd be something a little different and perhaps insufficient to allow the cursed seal to blossom to its fullest potential. For the American Uchiha, he predicted that it would be a fierce desire to become strong so he could better protect those he cared about. The death of his mother, Jun'ko, and his inability to save her no doubt tormented him greatly, a torture the cursed seal would amplify within him, forcing him to use his desire for power as a weapon. He would either embrace his desire for more power in order to prevent a repeat of the death of a loved one or he would be destroyed by the enhanced weight of his sorrow and grief.

It was as he considered the seal he would give Xander-kun that his two subordinates returned and it was with some interest that he noted that both of their forms were somewhat mussed up.

Interesting.

"So? How did he perform?" He asked without moving from his laid back position against the tree trunk.

"Better than I thought he would," Sakon said with some anger that no doubt came from the bit of pain the wound on his arm was causing him. "He actually managed to execute the Karyu Endan justu, even though it drained him almost completely of what chakra he had left."

Most interesting.

With a puff of smoke Sakon ended the henge no jutsu that allowed him to masquerade as a ninja from the Hidden Village of Grass. Apparently Ukon wanted to put in his two cents of critique as well.

"He showed some leadership potential, too." Ukon said with his deeper and rougher voice, "If my brother and I had truly been Genin or even Chuunin, their team combo would have finished us."

"Tell me everything." He commanded with a tone that would permit any mistakes in their retelling of the encounter.

Obeying their master, his two subordinates retold the tale from the moment they first picked up the trail of their prey to the moment they left the three Genin staring at the grass bunshin. All in all, while he was pleased by Xander's ability to organize a team for an ambush and the overabundance of force used to 'finish off' his enemies, there was some disappointment to be had. Unlike Sasuke-kun, the American Uchiha had not made a single move to take on his enemies all on his own in order to prove, if only to himself, how powerful he was. It was a strong factor in the search for power that one needed to show others how strong you were and verify yourself the full extent of your power by using it on others. Where Sasuke-kun had followed this path well during their encounter, Xander-kun still seemed willing to rely on others to make up for what strength he lacked.

This would not do at all.

As long as Xander-kun was willing to rely on others, his hunger for power, his desire to get **stronger**, would be impaired and perhaps someday completely extinguished.

He smiled as his mind took this flaw in his prey and twisted it into how he would shape his encounter with the elder Uchiha. It would require him to be a bit rougher, a bit more **brutal**, with Xander-kun and his teammates but he was confident that the proper message would be conveyed.

"Return to the village and begin preparations for the next phase of the plan." He commanded with all the authority he possessed as Kage of the Hidden Village of Sound.

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama!" The two said before vanishing in a burst of speed into the growing darkness of the Forest of Death.

_Now, Xander-kun._ He thought as he plotted out a course in his mind to intercept his second targets' team, _It is time to see how you live up to your Uchiha heritage._

&

_**An Hour and a Half Later, Forest of Death, Xander's P.O.V**_

"Dammit, Hana! Did you have to hit me so hard?!" Xander asked as he rubbed his sore jaw that had turned a slight shade of purple thanks to the Inuzuka woman's KO punch three and a half hours ago.

"Don't be such a baby!" Hana growled, though with a bit of regret hidden in her tone if one listened carefully, "Besides, I said I was sorry!"

"Tell that to my jaw." He muttered before focusing his attention on the path ahead of them and the fact that the other teams had a three and half hour lead on them.

They were still going to try their 'lay the traps near the tower' plan but they were having to hoof it there double time in order to make up for his beauty sleep. While Xander definitely didn't appreciate the manner in which he was sent off to la-la land, the bright side of the experience was that it had helped to replenish his chakra levels. While not at full capacity, they were definitely past the halfway point putting him in better shape for facing more ninjas. When he'd asked them why they hadn't just woken him up ASAP after Hana had knocked him out, they'd said that they needed him strong and didn't want the hassle of catching him every time he missed a branch due to fatigue. Whatever the case, he was grateful for the bit of shut eye and hoped that it wouldn't mess up their chances of getting into the next Phase of the Chuunin exam.

Ava was on his shoulder now, resting for a bit before returning to point bird duty, and while she wasn't being as annoying about it as before, she occasionally sent an image into his mind about what she expected as payment for services rendered. While he wasn't crazy about emptying his pocket book **that** much, Xander couldn't deny that she'd saved his butt back there by warning him of the incoming Grass ninja. Plus, she did serve an important role by making sure that the path ahead of them was clear of traps as well as ninja, so he supposed he would just have to go without ramen for a while. It'd be tough since he **so** liked the ramen the old man at the ramen bar served, but he knew there'd be sacrifices during the exam and this was just one of them.

He was about to ask the ladies what sort of traps they thought should be laid down when they reached their destination when a feeling came over him that forced him to come to a stop at the next branch. It was a feeling of malevolence, of bloodlust and a desire to throw the grim reaper many new sacrifices. While he might not have felt it before with his new ninja senses, he'd heard people describe it often enough to know 'murderous intent' when he felt it. Someone was out there, perhaps more than one person, and they were directing this unpleasant feeling at them full force! Looking around left, right and whatever other directions he could think of that an enemy might use to approach but nothing was revealed. Looking at the others, Xander could tell that they felt it to and didn't bothered asking the others if they felt it as well because they all knew their focus was needed elsewhere. Activating his Sharingan, he looked about hoping that he could use it to somehow perceive the enemy's location, even if they were using a ninjutsu or genjutsu to conceal themselves. However whoever the big bads were, they were using abilities or techniques that were impossible for his bloodline limit to perceive. All throughout his efforts, the feeling of 'murderous intent' remained strong, coming from all around them like a fog, and he was certain that it meant they were facing a team of ninja.

After all, there was no way **in HELL** that this sort of presence could be produced by a single person!

Pulling out two kunai, he made the hand signal for the others to rally to his position and go back to back so that the odds of a sneak attack would be slim. Looking around, Xander looked closely for any sign of movement, any sign of the people that were unleashing this feeling of murderous intent. However neither his Sharingan nor his other senses could pick up anything that would allow him to pin down the enemy.

"Any idea where?" He asked over his shoulder knowing that his teammates would know what he was referring to.

"Nothing! Whoever this asshole is, neither me or the girls can pick up his scent!" Hana said with growing frustration about the ineffectiveness of her trained senses.

"Same for me! My eyes might be good enough to hit the mark every time, but if there's someone out there I can't see them." Ayeka said with a bit of anxiety filtering into her words.

_Not __**GOOD!**_He thought since it was bad enough he couldn't spot the enemy, but if the others couldn't either then all they could do was wait for the baddie to make the first move.

For five minutes straight they waited for the source of the malevolent intent they sensed to show him or herself but to know avail. Nevertheless, the murderous intent didn't fade one bit and Xander didn't think any of them were willing to risk moving at all for fear of becoming target number one. Then, without warning, the murderous intent vanished as though it had never been there to begin with.

They should have taken that as their fist hint that something was about to happen.

Without warning, what looked like a tongue emerged from the darkness and, just as he comprehended this, it wrapped around his right leg before making sure he would be comprehending little. Before he could even think of a way of freeing himself, the tongue yanked on his leg, pulling him into the air before slamming him into a nearby tree. This was done not once but twice before being released and only his pain threshold as well as his beatings at the hands of Tony Harris allowed him to recover enough in order to grab hold of a branch rather than fall to the forest floor. Looking up and watching the tongue retract back to its owner, he smiled mentally since their enemy had just made his/her first mistake. If it had been him, he would have used a technique to take out all three targets at once or at least make certain that the first to fall **did NOT** get back up. As it was now, Ayeka now had a target to aim for and he could tell from the hand seals being formed she was planning on taking it to the enemy **hard**.

"SHURIKEN KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!" Ayeka cried as she unleashed a cloud of shuriken in the direction of the retracting tongue hoping to hit the source.

Leaping back to the branch on which his teammates stood, Xander waited along with them for sounds of either cries of pain or at least something more than the shurikens hitting nothing but wood. Sadly it was the sound of metal embedding in wood that they heard rather than the pain of their enemy and that was not an encouraging idea. Worse than that, if the enemy was no longer there then they were right back where they started and that was not knowing where to look or where to strike. That seemed to be the enemy's strategy, strike from the darkness and never provide a viable target, and so far it was working far better than those on the receiving end would like.

He tried to think of a strategy, some plan that would bring things into close-to-mid-range combat, but he could think of nothing that would lure the enemy so close. He knew that if it was a Genin that was taking the exam like them, the scroll could be used as bait but there was no way such murderous intent came from a Genin. That meant that it was unlikely that they were facing a true participant of the exam but rather someone else, someone who wanted something a little more bloody, someone that didn't belong here. It was also someone who could very well have much more experience than all of Team Anko combined. The only option he could think of would be to break off this confrontation and make a run for it because until they had a better idea of what they were facing victory was naught but a faint light on the horizon.

"When I give the signal, we scatter!" He whispered to the others quickly, knowing that it would not belong before the enemy struck again, "Head for the spot I pointed out on the edge of the forest near the tower. We'll meet up there."

"Are you telling us to run, oh **great** leader?" Hana asked, sounding both for and against the idea.

"Damn straight I am!" He snapped back as he quickly surveyed the area for the direction he'd flee in, "We're facing a ninja of superior skill, no idea where he is or just how powerful he is. Staying and fighting would be suicide at this point."

"I agree with Xander-sama." Ayeka said with kunai in hand as she continued to keep an eye out for the enemy, "None of us can hit anything unless we have a target to aim for and this asshole doesn't have any reason to expose himself to us. Unless that situation changes, a strategic retreat is a perfectly viable choice."

Almost as though the woods themselves found the cowardice they displayed amusing, a sinister laughter echoed throughout the treetops. This unnerved them more as it made it sound like the enemy was all around them at the same time making his plan of a retreat useless. Whether or not they were truly surrounded didn't matter since it made it Russian Roulette as far as who would choose the safe path and who would run right into the clutches of the enemy ninja.

"So this is the team of Genin that Anko has taught," Came a sinister voice from the shadows with contempt laced in the words. "Three scared Genin, so afraid to do anything, unable to do anything at all for fear of dying. Pitiful!"

It was useless to try and pin down the enemy by the sound of their voice due to the echo-facilitating nature of the forest, but nevertheless it was all they could do. With sight not being an option and smell proving useless, the number of ways they could pin down the location of their hidden attacker were small in number.

"To think that even with an Uchiha to lead you into battle you cannot find me." Came the voice again, this time definitely sounding male to his ears, "I supposed if I am to get any amusement out of this, I will have to do as you wish and give you something to fight against."

Seconds after the words were spoken, the sound of something traversing through a slimy substance could be heard and the source was **damn** close. Two seconds later they found that source in the form of a person walking out from a tree trunk as though the wood was actually water. Looking at the pale-faced guy, he could immediately tell that he was the third member of the team of Grass ninjas that had attacked them earlier. However this guy neither looked nor felt like he belonged in this exam or even unworthy enough to be called Chuunin. This guy was Jounin level, no doubt about it, and that meant that unless this guy was seriously feeling generous then Team Anko had already lost the fight. During their training sessions with Anko-sensei, he'd experienced what it was like to go up against a Jounin and he suspected that the only reason they did as well as they did was because the purple-haired lady went easy on them.

He seriously doubted this guy would think to do so with them.

Too bad Hana was so off her guard from the 'attacks from the darkness' routine that she didn't clue into just how powerful this guy was. It might have saved her some bruises.

"Bad move asshole! Hagane, Ishina, Seirei! Let's shred him!" Hana declared with anger as she performed the Shikyaku technique with declaring it out loud.

In puffs of smoke, her dog partners transformed into perfect copies of her new, more feral form and before he could tell her to stop she attacked the snake-eyed man.

"NIJUU GATSUGA!!" Inuzuka Hana declared before both she and her partners turned themselves into spinning cyclones of claws.

No matter how hard they tried or how many different angles they went at the guy, he dodged them with such ease that they might as well have told him where they were going in advance. Even when they stopped spinning and just attacked the sinister man with feral taijutsu moves, there was no increase in effectives nor any hits landed. This only served to heighten Hana's savagery, making her moves less thought out and more focused on venting her rage upon the cause of her frustration. He wanted to help and, judging from the fact that Ayeka was holding kunai in both hands but not throwing them, the blonde also wanted to support her teammate. However at the speeds Hana and her dogs were going there was no way for them to throw anything or perform a ninjutsu without running the risk of hitting the Inuzuka girl. They had to either break up the assault Hana was doing and try to get a team effort going or they had to be ready when Mr. Chalk Skin got tired of playing with Hana and turned to them.

Xander had a bad feeling, though, that when this asshole got tired of playing with someone, those people never played with anyone else **ever** again.

His feeling was proven horrifyingly correct when, in the second that followed one of Hana's charging attacks, the Grass ninja reaching out with his hand at a speed matching lightning and grabbed her leg by the ankle. Then, with unheard of brutality, he used her body as a blunt instrument to bat aside girl's trinity partners like they were baseballs and he was aiming for three straight homeruns. It was mere chance alone that none of the dogs fell all the way down to the forest floor but rather went unconscious on nearby tree branches. With a final but twice as potent swing, the Grass ninja flung the Inuzuka girl aside like week old trash, sending her back first into a tree trunk before falling unconscious to a branch ten feet below. Xander tried to see from where he was whether or not she was seriously hurt but, aside from the tell-tale signs of breath, he had no idea just what the extent of her injuries were.

He didn't have any more time to worry about her, though.

The Grass ninja with eyes of a Snake shot towards where he and Ayeka stood with bloodlust dancing in his eyes.

Not even bothering to wait, he shoved Ayeka clear of the immediate combat zone and pulled a kunai out with his free hand. Taking a chance and hoping that the oncoming ninja would be vulnerable for a split second when he landed, he used his Sharingan to time it just right before he lunged forward for a disabling strike. However this move proved to be as useless as Hana's attacks had been as, with minimal movement, the enemy ninja moved out of the path of the blade and inside of his guard. Pushing off the branch with his feet, Xander hoped to evade whatever attack the pale man would use to take advantage of the opportunity but reacted too late. A kick to his stomach knocked the air from his lungs and sent him tumbling to the rough surface of the branch, rolling for a few feet before he stopped his movement. Knowing that staying down was the same as waiting to die, he channeled what strength he could to getting into a crouching position at the least or if he was really lucky three quarters of the way to standing. With a push of an arm and sluggish positioning of the legs, he managed to achieve his crouch but only in time to see his opponent mere feet away.

_Time to play one of my hidden aces!_ He thought as he flung out his right hand and channeled some chakra to his gloves.

It had been an idea that had come to him when he'd inquired with Ayeka about the ability to seal items in a scroll. He'd known about the fact it could be done ever since Halloween but he hadn't known the precise process as far as how to do it himself. She had been a bit surprised at this gap in his knowledge but had **eagerly** agreed to show him how it was done. With an excess of physical touching and close proximity, she showed him how objects could be sealed into scrolls, tags and just about anything else with only a little tweaking in certain spots. From there he had pondered how he could incorporate the skill into his own fighting style and just what he wanted to store in a scroll or a card. He had spent an hour or so each evening thinking about that and, finally, hit upon an idea that just might work. It took a few practice runs on his own time but he came upon an ace that would serve him well… he hoped.

Looking to the enemy ninja, Xander could tell that the man thought that the poor little Uchiha had mistimed a palm thrust and smirked with contempt.

Wrong.

Xander sharpened his chakra enough to trigger the symbol that he had written into the palm of his glove and a puff of smoke signaled the release of the item. With both the air displacement of the release as well as his own palm thrust and the direction the enemy was moving, he knew he'd done it perfectly. Emerging from the smoke was not a kunai or a shuriken but rather an explosive tag with the writing facing him and some adhesive applied to the opposite side. Forcing all his remaining chakra to his legs, he leapt into the air just in time to see the tag stick to the Grass ninja's forearm and then sent out a pulse of energy to trigger it. With an explosion of fire and force, the tag obscured the pale man from sight be he knew he'd seen the explosive make contact with the arm. If he had known that this guy was going to show up, he would have made the explosion **much** more potent. Sadly, Xander had come up with this trump card as a way of stunning a powerful foe in order to allow Team Anko to regroup. It might leave a few light burns and crack the guy's forearm, but nothing more serious than that for certain.

Fortunately it was enough to give Ayeka, once more on her feet, the opening she needed to add her own attack to the situation. With a series of quick hand seals, she unleashed a perfectly done Goukakyu no jutsu, sending a decent sized sphere of fire towards the location of the enemy ninja. Landing back a couple of feet from the point of impact, Xander watched the fireball encounter something solid, causing the flames to wrap around the object for a moment before dispersing. As this also had the effect of dispersing the remaining smoke from his explosive tag, he was finally able to see the pale Grass ninja clearly. The smoking tatters that the pale man's clothes were in pleased him as it reaffirmed that their attacks had done some damage. He could clearly make out where his explosive tag had blown up, shredding the man's shirt sleeve and the smoking signs of Ayeka's fire element ninjutsu could be seen everywhere. He was just about to relax a little when the team's enemy began to spasm like a puppet whose strings were being jerked by unseen hands.

The description prove most accurate when, seconds later, the colors and detail of the figure standing in front of them changed to chocolate brown before melting into a pile of mud.

"The replacement jutsu!?" He exclaimed, trying to think of when the pale man could have done that.

At the same time, though, both he and Ayeka looked about, trying to figure out where their target had vanished to so as not to once again be rendered without a place to direct their attacks. Up, down and all around, they looked but it was only when he looked back at Ayeka that he saw what he sought. Rising up from the tree branch much as he had done when he first appeared, the pale Grass ninja reappeared with Ayeka only at the last minute sensing something behind her. Xander tried to warn her but it was far too late for that. With palm flat and fingers pointing at the blonde haired Genin, snakes shot out of the pale man's sleeves and wrapped themselves tightly around the girl before biting down on the areas of flesh within range. He didn't even have to ask whether or not the snakes were venomous because the cries of pain that came from Ayeka were all the proof he needed.

"Pathetic! Two Kunoichi trained since for three years under my former apprentice." Pale Face said with disappointment and contempt, "It would appear I was right to discard her when I did. To produce such inferior Genin it is clear she has talent in absolutely **nothing**."

It was then that the bastard turned his slitted eyes towards the only remaining member of Team Anko still able to fight.

"You, however, show at least some skill, Xander-kun." The Grass ninja commented with a slimy half grin, "Sealing an exploding tag into your glove, releasing it in close quarters and then leaping away before detonating it. A surprise but, then, your mother had a talent for that as well."

With every word that this man spoke he became more convinced that this snake was no mere Genin but something much more.

"Who are you?" He asked hoping that the memories he retained from Halloween would allow him to get this man's measure once a name was provided.

"Heheheheh. Show me your strength and perhaps I will tell you." The Pale Grass ninja replied before taking up a taijutsu fighting stance.

Knowing that he didn't have time to hesitate with both Hana and Ayeka in danger from the attacks inflicted on them, Xander took a deep breath to let the anxiety he felt fall away. Focusing all his thoughts, all his determination, on defeating the man in front of him, he surged forward on chakra-empowered legs to meet his foe head on. Leading in with a short leaping kicking, he did so fully expecting the forearm block and, pushing off it slightly, immediately going for a leg sweep upon landing. Knowing that the enemy ninja's preferred style of fighting was aggressively, he planned his moves accordingly and immediately executed a Konoha Shofu in the hopes of taking advantage of the inability to dodge mid-air. However, much luck he had, the pale man used the kick as a push off point to gain some altitude and throw a volley of projectiles at him. Not wanting to be forced into a retreat, Xander whipped out a kunai and began to deflect the weapons heading for vital areas. He ignored the ones that would hit less vital areas and would only cause superficial wounds since trying to get them all would only be a waste of energy on his part.

Upon seeing the snake man begin his descent, he chose that instead of going with taijutsu once more, he would try something a little different. It was iffy but he'd seen the Sand ninja do it and had done some reading on the technique in the Konoha library since he figured it was only a matter of time before the old Harris luck kicked in. Flicking his fingers outwards, he channeled chakra through them and hoped using a somewhat whip-like movement would get the threads of chakra to reach their target. With his Sharingan activate, he was gratified to see when a little less than half of the strings he had cast out successfully made contact with the Grass ninja's body. With a feral smile he yanked as hard as he could on the threads with the intention of slamming his enemy onto the part of the branch that lay behind him. However, just as he was beginning to believe he may finally gained some momentum, the pale ninja somehow managed to snap the chakra threads himself. This didn't make any sense! It wasn't like they were normal physical threads and they were pretty much invisible unless you had the right kind of eyes to see them. Nevertheless, that was what happened but he still had something he could make of this situation because, thanks to the angle at which the enemy was coming down, they'd likely land on all fours.

_Not exactly the best position to defend or attack from unless you're an Inuzuka._ He thought deciding to mix things up a bit.

Charging the man's landing point, Xander waited until the last possible moment then threw some smoke balls ahead of himself, forming a large cloud between himself and his target. Once inside, he immediately used the Bunshin no Jutsu technique to create two clones and immediately ordered them to exit the cloud while he stayed put. With his Sharingan, it was easy enough to keep track of what was going outside the smoke cloud and he was glad to see that for at least a few seconds, his bunshin were holding snake man's attention. It wouldn't last, though, since sooner rather than later some hint or tell would expose them for ghost images, but all he'd need was one solid opening to end this fight, here and now, before he ran out of rabbits to pull out of his metaphorical hat.

As soon as soon as pale face exposed a vital spot, he leapt from the cloud and executed a Konoha shofu that, instead of connecting with the man's jaw, slammed into the man's crotch. However, instead of following up this technique with the Kage Buyō, he chose to employ a move he'd used before but this time it'd be for a different purpose than defense.

Forming the hand seals needed to perform the technique, Xander shouted, "ARASHI KANMON NO JUTSU!!"

Normally it was used to form a barrier in front of or around the user in order to nullify ninjutsu and taijutsu assaults but, in this case, he would use it to pin down his target. Directing the monowire-tied kunai towards the snake man, who was now reorienting himself mid-air to face him, Xander sent out nine of them with the intention of completely entrapping the enemy ninja within. The look of surprise on the pale ninja's face was priceless as the moron no doubt thought that he'd use the declared technique to protect himself. One by one, yet in perfect formation, the kunai flew by the Grass ninja until they hit the tree trunk behind it, prompting him to proceed with the next phase. Pulling the monowire close together on his end, he channeled the necessary chakra through the various near invisible strands to activate the field that would absorb chakra-based attacks and prove durable against physical ones. This would effectively hold the snake faced man in place for what would come next.

_Assuming my half-baked idea actually __**works,**__ of course!_ He thought sarcastically since his plan for attacking the Grass ninja was about as well thought out as a child's play dough figure.

Not wasting more than a second for doubt, he began to will the chakra electricity that made up the barrier closest to his hands to converge. More and more chakra electricity he focused into the center of the barrier not two feet from his hands, building up the pressure, and pushing his ability to do so to the limit. He knew he could not afford to delay in attacking for too long or else the pale Grass ninja would most likely free himself, ruining this one chance to end the battle in favor of Team Anko. Thus, after forcing one more surge of chakra to the nexus point, he channeled the condensed chakra electricity down the monowires with a cry of domination. Like lightning it shot down towards its target, a target that seemed helpless to avoid the oncoming onslaught, and, with a cry of angry resignation, the blast hit home. Keeping up the attack as best he could, it was ten seconds before Xander felt it was safe to shut down both the storm barrier technique along with the chakra electricity blast. With great satisfaction, he watched as the smoking body of the pale Grass ninja dropped to the branch below completely limp, implying unconsciousness or death.

_A good thing too 'cause I'm almost completely spent._ He thought as he willed himself to remain standing.

Deciding it was time to free the others, he turned to where Ayeka lay still restrained by the snakes since freeing her took priority at the moment. If she had been tied up by simple ropes then he could afford to wait a little while longer but the fact that they were apparently poisonous meant he had to work to counter the venom.

He took three steps before sinister laughter filled the air and his mind froze in disbelief at the implications of that noise. Whipping his head in the direction of where the Grass ninja had fallen, he was unable to believe what he was seeing but at the same time knew that it was indeed happening. Despite the ferocity of his electrical attack, the man was apparently unharmed. Not only unharmed but also sounding quite amused by this attempt to harm him. Despite some slight charring around the edges of the sleeves, there was no sign of any damage done to the enemy shinobi. Turning to face the man and hopefully prove to himself that the man's lack of harm was only skin deep, Xander was stopped cold with a single gesture. Instantly all his limbs became numb and signals he sent to them to remain where they were failed as one by one they went almost completely limp. He was on his hands and knees before he knew it, despite the efforts of his spirit and mind to force his body to obey him.

"Subarashii!! Despite having not grown up in a Hidden Village, despite having only fabricated memories to use in your training, you fight just as well as your cousin Sasuke." The Pale Man said with malicious amusement, "It makes me wonder if I should make you my primary choice instead of him."

"Primary choice?! Just who the hell **are** you!?" He yelled as he continued to try and find a way to restore normal movement to his body.

"Ah yes! I believe I said I would tell you my name if you showed me your strength and so you have." Pale Face said with another light chuckle, "My name is Orochimaru and I have been interested in the Uchiha clan for quite some time. Before learning of you, I thought that only Sasuke would be available for my plans but then you showed up. A most interesting development, neh?"

"Just what do you want with me and Sasuke?!" he growled out, not liking at all that the asshole was enjoying himself.

"That will have to remain a secret for now but I will give you a hint." Orochimaru replied with a smile of increased malevolence, "A hint straight from the pits of hell, you might even say."

Using a hand seal that couldn't be identified, Snake Face's neck extended further and further away from the man's body with the head shooting towards him. Xander tried to move, he tried to somehow block the oncoming threat but he was helpless in the grip of what he now could identify as a paralysis jutsu. Thus, he was helpless to do anything but cry out both in shock as well as pain when the asshole bit into his neck like a vamp straight from Sunnydale. However, it wasn't the bite itself that caused his pain to grow but rather what he could feel being injected into his blood through the teeth that had pierced his skin. No time was he given to diagnose what was going on because like acid was flowing through his veins pain became the only thing he was capable of thinking of from that point on. His mind barely even registered when Orochimaru removed his fangs from his neck and retracted his head back towards his body where it assumed a more natural position on his shoulders.

"Survive the pain, Xander-kun. Endure!" Orochimaru told him through the pain that encompassed his body and robbed him of all but basic thinking, "See this exam through to the end or I will be most disappointed with you."

With those final words, the man with a face resembling a snake's vanished, leaving him alone with his pain.

Alone until neither body nor mind could take it any more and the blackness of unconsciousness claimed him for its own.

&


	11. A Curse Revealed

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever. This is a hobby for me and a source of entertaining reading for those that enjoy reading my fanfic.

&

_**The Forest of Death, Six Hours Later, In a Small Cave on the Side of a Hill**_

_**Hana's Perspective**_

"So how's Xander?" Hana asked as she returned from what seemed to be her twentieth patrol of the immediate area with Hagane, Ishina and Seirei.

"Still has a high fever and whatever that bastard injected into him is hurting him pretty bad." Ayeka said with worry in her voice clear to hear, "I've consulted every scroll on poison I brought with me and nothing matches this! All I can do is try to keep his temperature down!!"

It was true that Ayeka was doing everything she could and, considering that she'd sealed a small library of scrolls into the two she brought with her, that was saying a lot. No way could she claim that the gold digging teenager wasn't doing her best but that only made things troublesome for the three of them. It had been five and a half hours since she'd regained consciousness after the thrashing that the pale-faced **bastard** had given her and her girls. In that time, her worry was growing. To anyone who knew her, this would be evidenced by the lack of bravado and the fact that she was actually calling Xander by his name rather than the nickname of 'Wannabe'. She just couldn't believe how the three of them had been **schooled** by that weird Grass ninja and it pissed her off to the point of making her irritable at random moments. She was, by no means, as overconfident in her skills as she might seem sometimes, but she still considered herself to a girl that her clan could be proud of. However, that had been reduced to a big pile of scrap after she'd gotten her ass handed to her by that snake-eyed **freak**. He'd moved so fast and with such ease that she might as well have tried to beat Hokage-sama herself for all the good her efforts did her. According to Ayeka, it had been much the same with her but at least using some teamwork with Xander had allowed the blonde to last a little longer.

_Speaking of which._ She thought before asking, "How you holding up?"

For a moment Ayeka didn't look like she was sure what her teammate meant but a light of understanding soon filled her eyes.

"I can still feel traces of it in my blood but the anti-venom I brought with me will take care of it eventually. It's a good thing I though to bring along some along in case we got bitten by any of the snakes in this forest." Ayeka replied before putting a fresh cold cloth on Xander's head, "Still, I can't understand why that **freak** didn't finish us off back there! He had us at his mercy!"

"He didn't want to kill us. He wanted to test us and see just how good we were." She stated after using the mystery as a distraction from other things, "Once he got the answer to that, he didn't need to do anything else."

"Maybe. Any change?" Ayeka asked looking up at the Inuzuka woman.

"No. No approaching enemies to the naked eye and no scents on the wind that don't belong in a forest." She replied, knowing that her, and she used the term loosely, friend meant her latest patrol, "Plus with Ava standing watch above the cave, I don't think anyone would be able to get close to us without her raising one helluva ruckus."

It was plain fact that ever since the bird had woken her up by biting her on the ear earlier, the feather duster hadn't left her partner's side nor had it let its guard down. Sitting on a tree on top of the hill that their cave was a part of, the eagle hawk kept a constant vigil with it's eyes always searching for potential enemies. She could only guess that the bird had tried to get back to them once she felt Xander's battle emotions flare up but arrived too late to help. While she didn't think the bird was pulling the watchful eye routine because she actually cared about Xander as friend, it was feasible that Ms. Feathers was pissed about potentially losing her meal ticket. Whatever the reason, the immediate area was about as secure as it was going to get but, with only the moonlight to illuminate the area, that wasn't saying much. Hana's nose and ears helped to make up for her diminished eyesight but they were still in a tactically disadvantageous situation. In this particular forest there was no such thing as a safe place to take a nap or sleep. If the other Genin didn't get you, the various animals that lived here and claimed it as home would. Most of them she was familiar with, since it was her family's job to care for the animals of Konoha, and that meant studying about them from the age of three up. Normally in a situation like this, the team of three would be on a watch rotation with the night split evenly between the three of them. However, with Xander down for the time being, it meant they'd have to divide the night in two, hoping all the while that the extra hours didn't make them tired enough to miss something important.

_Better not take the chance._ She thought before saying, "I'm going to lay down some traps along the perimeter. It won't be much, given what we brought with us, but it's better than nothing."

Walking until she was about thirty feet from the cave, Hana began to lay down traps in the form of explosive tags, trip wires with bells on them, trip wires rigged to let thick pieces of wood fall on the enemy and other delightful surprises like that. The majority of the traps relied on the natural environment rather than anything they brought with them but that was because they hadn't figured on setting up a perimeter like this.

They hadn't figured on a lot of things.

Setting the last trap down, she looked at the gauntlet she'd set out, trying to think if there was any direction she'd missed or any opening she'd left unguarded. Not that she could do much about it, even if there was an opening because she'd hit rock bottom as far as their combined equipment was concerned. Heading back to the cave, her mind wandered until the image of the weird bruise like tattoo on Xander's neck popped up in front of her mind's eye. It had been one of the first things she'd seen when she'd examined him for injuries and, for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what it could be. It wasn't a bruise like one might receive from a powerful blow, it was too clean cut for that, nor was it some kind of localized poison. It took the shape of three demonic looking horns arranged in a pattern that, if you connected the tips of each horn together, it'd form a perfect pyramid triangle. Once Ayeka woke up and had recovered enough from the effects of the snake venom, she immediately unrolled two scrolls before releasing an assortment of medical scrolls and medicines. Apparently the noble lady wannabe had been determined to have something to deal with everything that might be lurking in the forest of death. However, when the blonde started using curses more often than polite words, then it became clear how much success she was having.

While her first instinct after that was to grab Xander and get him to a medical-nin, Ayeka had vetoed that idea by pointing out the number of enemy Genin still out there. While those belonging to Konoha might be willing to let them pass without trouble, the others wound pounce on the opportunity to defeat them and take their exam scroll. Even with both her and Ayeka working together, they wouldn't be able to hold off a team of three and protect Xander at the same time. So instead they chose to hide and wait for their third team member to recover from snake face's bite. If it wound up taking more than four days, more time than they had been given to reach the tower, then it looked like they'd fail the Chuunin exam. She couldn't help but let out a sigh of disappointment at that because, while she would never give voice to it, she actually thought they might have a chance to go all the way with Xander leading them. He…he balanced the team out, kept their minds on the job, and actually came up with some half decent plans every so often.

_Damn it! Why am I getting all weepy all of a sudden? _She thought as she tried to shake her thoughts out of the pattern they'd been in, _Sure, he's been __**some**__ help but it's not like we couldn't have made it this far if we'd been stuck with some other guy!_

Plunking herself down in front of the entrance to the cave, she put all her effort into focusing on sentry duty. She'd keep watch on the outside while Ayeka took care of **Wannabe** on the inside and, hopefully, the idiot would pull it together in time for them to pass the second phase of the Chuunin exam.

_He'd better pull through or I'll __**kick**__ his ass!!_ She thought with a growl.

&

_**Inside the Cave, Three Hours Later, Ayeka's Perspective**_

_Please don't die Xander! Please! _Ayeka thought as she continued to apply cloth soaked in cold water on her future husband's forehead.

She would never forget the sight of Xander lying on the ground in pain after she had recovered enough from the snake venom to move on her own. It hurt just to look at him and it only got worse as the hours passed and her efforts to heal him continued to fail, despite the supposed potency of the medicine described to her in her scrolls. It bothered her to no end that there was something she could not fight against even when she tried to modify certain medicines to fit the strange symptoms Xander was showing. fever, loss of consciousness, pain evident throughout the body but emphasized at the bite location and possibly inducing terrible dreams if her hunch was right. However, with her meager knowledge of medicine, she wasn't able to mess with the formulas all that much since she didn't know what drastic alterations would do to the patient. In the end her efforts were little better than most academy graduates. It was this fact more than anything else that bugged her since it had been three years since she'd graduated from the academy and **this** was the extent of the progress she'd made since then.

Pathetic!

So what if she had managed to hone her projectile, ninjutsu and genjutsu abilities since graduating! They could only destroy or kill and it was basic knowledge that while most of a ninja's missions did focus on those areas, only an idiot ignored everything else. However, ignore the medical side of things was precisely what she'd done because, in her mind, medical-nins were those people who operated behind the scenes and she wanted to be in the spotlight. Now, though, that desire to be in the spotlight has put a teammate and possibly a future husband at risk because she didn't know how to save him.

_That's IT! WHEN we get out of here, I'm going to spend every free minute I have making up for lost time in the village library!_ She thought with profound determination, _By this time this time next year, I'm going to be one of the top ninja in my age group when it comes to medical knowledge!_

For now, though, she just hoped that what she knew about medicine would be enough to see Xander through to good health.

It was as she thought this that she sensed something odd about the feelings that coursed throughout her body. Before now, her only thoughts or feelings concerning Xander were centered on seducing Xander because of his position and the position she wanted to hold herself. After all, she didn't know him all that well and it was taking most of her focus on coming up with new seduction techniques. However, as time passed and the teamwork training progressed, she got to know him whether she wanted to or not. She found that while he didn't seem to take the training as seriously as Hana, he was fiercely loyal to his friends. He even stood up to Anko-sensei whenever the Jounin came down to hard on either her or Hana. He either tried to downplay the mistake, neutralize it by coming up with a fix for it or somehow make it all out to be his fault. He was also stubborn about certain things and, when he made up his mind about something, it took some serious arguing to get him to change his mind. At the same time, though, he took it as a personal challenge to make all of them laugh when the mood during their training took an especially bad turn for the worse. Most of the time, though, he did this by making fun of himself or making bizarre yet amusing comments about life in Konoha. All in all, she found she liked him quite a bit now and might have even been friends with him even if he wasn't an Uchiha.

However, it was these newly grown emotions of friendship that caused her to worry each time Xander let out a groan of pain or one of his legs jerked. She worried about not getting the chance to know him even more. As she went to replace the wet cloth once more, a hand reached out and stopped her. Turning to see who it was, she saw that it was Hana but, unlike most times, the young woman actually had a soft expression on her face for once.

"Get some sleep. I'll wake you when it's your turn to stand guard." Hana said without a hint of her usual bravado or sarcasm.

For a moment she was stunned by this turn of events because from the very day they became teammates for the first time, she had always considered Hana to be this unclean tomboy of a girl. After all, the young woman's hair was only minimally cared for and the Inuzuka woman didn't hesitate one bit in a situation that might get her dirtied up. Add to that almost **no** interest in men and there was very little common ground for the two of them to build on, so while they could work together, friendship would be a lot longer in coming. It was this lack of common ground that let to the two of them fighting so often since one could never really understand where the other was coming from. To hear her teammate now say something without the usual sharp edges included was a surprise to her. She tried to think of what could have changed the dog girl and got her answer when Hana's eyes briefly flickered towards Xander before quickly looking away.

_Could it be that she--!?_ She thought before mentally rejecting that notion, _NO WAY! They're fight almost every time they're together and she almost never says anything positive about him when they're apart!_

However, beneath her vehement denial of the possibility of Hana having feelings for Xander, her mind whispered that it wasn't **impossible** as much as highly **improbable**. After all, there had been that kiss between the two of them during the test after Xander had been released from the hospital three days after he'd arrived in Konoha. True, just about everyone had written off the move as just another diversionary tactic on his part but what if Hana saw it as more than that? If that had been the splinter beneath the Inuzuka girl's skin that had caused her to give Xander a rough time, then the potential implications were big indeed. Was it just her first kiss? Did she have feelings for Xander like she did? These were the questions that interested her most because, if it turned out that the answer to the second question was 'yes', then she could have a rival in the form of a teammate. However, from the looks of things, Hana was still trying to sort out her feelings at the moment, so it wasn't officially a crush or a romantic interest in the American Uchiha just yet.

Should she try to put an end to it right away?

Thinking about how to answer that particular question, she hit upon an idea that would work out perfectly for her. Instead of trying to drive Hana away from **her** man, she would leave her be and use what she knew about the Inuzuka woman to manipulate things in her favor. After all, if she could somehow **encourage** Hana's feelings towards Xander, then dog girl could be locked in as a rival, keeping others out of that spot. Add to that the fact that she knew Hana to be territorial about certain things, then it would enable her to split the number of potential enemies between the two of them. There was also the fact that after three years of being Hana's teammate, she knew the young ninja almost as well as her own family. This would make countering the dog girl's moves towards **her** future husband all the easier whereas, with unknowns, she'd have to learn as she went making things much harder. She had the unique opportunity to not only get a potential ally against other potential rivals but also be given a rival she stood a better than average chance of beating.

Perfect.

Moving further into the cave until she was right next to Xander she laid down on the hard dirt floor and after some repositioning found a spot she found comfortable enough to fall asleep in.

The fact that the position she settled in was **intimately** close to Xander was just a bonus.

&

_**Fifty Feet Away, High up in a Tree, Same Time**_

"Looks like we struck paydirt, brothers." Spoke one of the Rain ninjas as he looked through his telescope at the three Konoha ninja they'd come across.

"Indeed, brother. One of their number is down and the other two look tired." Spoke the second Rain ninja with a malicious grin, "With the odds in our favor, beating them is a sure bet. Shall we dance with them?"

"No." Was all that the third said and this caused the other two to turn in his direction.

"No? Why not brother?" Asked the first with only a little annoyance in his voice.

"I want them to be at their best. I want to face them head on and test my strength against the Uchiha," Replied the third brother with no room of negotiation in his voice.

"Why bother? Whatever put him flat on his back is probably serious enough that it'll take days for him to recover." Said the second brother with some impatience, "I don't want to wait that long!"

A foreboding silence fell over the group, one that could easily lead to the three fighting each other, before the third brother sighed.

"Very well. We will wait until the rays of the sun hit them." The third brother said with much disappointment, "If the Uchiha has not awoken by then, we will destroy them. Agreed?"

The other two nodded their head at this.

They were in agreement, concerning their next course of action.

Excellent.

&

_**Morning, Two Hours After Sunrise, Hana's Perspective**_

"Hana? Hana wake up!" Came a familiar voice as it penetrated the layers of sleep between her and consciousness.

"Five more minutes…" was all she mumbled out in response.

She was tired. Her mind wasn't yet awake enough that she could say more than that but she knew that she wanted a little more sleep before facing the day. A part of her knew that there was something important that needed to be done but, at the moment, sleep was at the top of her priority list.

"No, you need to wake up NOW!" Insisted the pesky voice that was keeping her from sinking back into blissful sleep.

To this she growled back in a way that made it clear that one more attempt at waking her up would be met with forceful retaliation. She wasn't about to let anyone tell her what to do and if the voice tried, it was going to learn what it meant to piss off an Inuzuka woman.

For a few seconds there was nothing but blissful silence and she let herself grin a bit that the woman had successfully gotten the hint and was leaving her alone.

"Fine then, Xander can just catch an eyeful of you naked when he wakes up!" The voice said in an offhand way, as if it didn't care one way or another if it happened.

THIS one sentence sliced through the layers of consciousness between asleep and awake like a kunai through air and, like she was lying on a bed of explosive tags, she shot to her feet. Checking herself out from top to bottom, she found that she wasn't naked but instead fully clothed, just like she'd been when she'd fallen asleep. She was also aware of the fact that, when she last had her eyes open, Xander was nowhere near well enough to be waking up anytime soon. Giggling soon let her in on the true purpose of her wake up call and, with narrowed eyes as well as teeth bared in a snarl, she turned to where one Mishima Ayeka stood, trying in vain to contain her laughter.

"Hahahaha—you looked—hahahahahaha—SO **funny!**" Ayeka laughed as both her hands went to her stomach as the blonde doubled over with laughter.

"Why you!!" She growled before tackling her teammate to the ground in anger.

They rolled for a moment before she managed to secure the top position and brought her right hand back for a blow to shut the dumb blonde up.

"Hey, hey, hey, HEY! I was just trying to wake you up!" Ayeka exclaimed quickly, realizing that things were about to get painful, "It's morning and that's when you wanted to be woken up, right?"

Pausing, she looked around the immediate area but, more importantly, at the sky and found that it was indeed morning with the sun just beginning to peek through the surrounding forest. With **some** reluctance, she stood up and stepped away from her teammate, even though there'd definitely be some payback later on. Looking over in the direction of the cave, she could see that Hagane, Ishina and Seirei had been woken up by the scuffling as well as Ava, who'd slept in a tree above the cave. Taking a deep sniff with her nose, she didn't find so much as a single scent that hadn't been there when she'd fallen asleep, so this was convincing enough that no one had penetrated the defenses. Taking a few steps towards the cave to get a look at Xander, she could see that the Uchiha was still unconscious as well as in pain. That wasn't good, since it was coming up on sixteen hours since the guy had been bitten. While her particular expertise was in taking care of animals, she knew that if a patient didn't show improvement after sixteen hours, the situation was likely to only get worse. However, she'd never seen a case where a poison proved to be so tenacious once injected into the blood stream of a victim. For the most part, poisons fell into one of two categories: those that killed quickly and those that dragged out a person's suffering over the course of hours. While some characteristics the American Uchiha was showing was consistent with the latter, there were other elements that didn't mesh with what she knew.

"So, no change?" She asked, hoping that someone with a bit more experience with human medicine might be able to brighten the picture her mind was drawing of the situation.

"Not really. I think the temperature's going down, but it's hard to tell." Ayeka replied, letting her own worried state of being show, "Maybe we should just forfeit this exam and get Xander to the hospital? I mean, it's one thing to get beat up trying to make it to the finish line but if he doesn't get better soon, we're just going to lose anyway."

"Let's not give up just yet, Ayeka." Hana said, her stubborn streak keeping her from throwing the towel in just yet, "We still have four days left before we automatically get disqualified. Let's give Xander at least another day or two before giving up."

"Don't bother since, all three of you are going to be dead before noon." Came an unknown voice that put both her and Ayeka immediately on their guard.

Looking in the direction of the voice, they saw six people exit from the forest and, from their garb, they appeared to be ninja from the Hidden Village of Rain. One had a cape with a collection of four umbrellas strapped to his back and a lid-like hat with the plate, designating him as a Rain ninja on his head. The rest wore clothes that looked like antique diving suits and had devices in their mouths that looked like they could be used to allow a person to breath underwater. The odds were definitely not in their favor since, with Xander out of the fight, it meant Team Anko was outnumbered two to one. With a quick gesture, she ordered her three four legged partners to take up a strong defensive position in front of the cave where Xander was. This would give her quite a large handicap but it couldn't be avoided. With odds like this, it would only take one Rain ninja getting by them to kill Xander where he lay and she was **NOT** going to let that happen. Bringing her hands up into the ready position for the Inuzuka style of taijutsu, she chose to wait until the Rain ninja made a move before taking any action.

"Heh. I don't know whether I should be flattered or insulted!" She said, putting as much confidence into her voice as possible, "Six of you against just the two of us is just the sort of handicap I've been hoping for but it's clear you're just rookies by just walking on out into the open. This'll hardly be any fun at all for us, eh, Ayeka?"

"Too true, Hana. Still, it wouldn't have mattered all that much even if they had taken us by surprise." Ayeka said, indicating with a wink that she knew the plan, "With my skills at projectile battles, I would've been able to knock anything they threw at us with ease!"

"Look at the little bitches bark, brother!" Said one diving suit clad Rain ninja, "They must really be scared of us to lay it on so thick."

"You're the ones who should be scared, asshole!" She growled at them, not liking how the Rain ninja were treating her and Ayeka, "We may be down one at the moment but two members of Team Anko is more than enough to handle you six!"

"Then prove it, **little** girl." Spoke the one wearing a cape and the apparent leader of the Rain ninja, "Prove your strength to us."

"With pleasure!" she said before going down on all fours, "Shikyaku no Jutsu!"

As the chakra rose within her, she could feel her fingernails extend into claws as her senses were heightened, along with her muscle strength. Charging forward at top speed, she was within striking distance of the leader within seconds and savagely lashed out with her claws, intent on messing up the guy's face. However, in a move of surprising speed, the guy leaned back just enough to avoid her claws before executing a knee thrust that she almost managed to get past her other free hand. Nevertheless, the power behind the blow was enough to send her backwards into the air and, even when she'd touched down, there was still some momentum to deal with. Grimacing a bit at the pain she felt in the hand she'd used to block the attack, she realized that this guy was not your typical Rain ninja. From all she'd heard about ninja from that region, they generally preferred to attack their enemies with misdirection from great distances. This resulted in their targets wearing themselves out while the Rain ninja remained relatively fresh, making for an easy kill. For this guy and his cronies to come right up to them to launch an attack meant either they were stupid or supremely confident that victory was already in their hands. She was tempted to just charge right back in there and tear the jackass' throat out but, with a bit of effort, restrained that part of herself. They needed to fight smart and they needed to end this battle quickly before the Rain ninja really started to take them seriously. As she tried to think of a way to go on the offensive, the wind changed direction and an interesting bit of information was conveyed to her.

"Ayeka! Corridor Slice maneuver! NOW!" She yelled before she got herself into position for the move they'd practiced during training without once letting on what she'd learned.

"Are you sure? We've never managed to get it quite right." Ayeka asked with some surprise while she moved her hands to her shuriken and kunai holsters.

"Just **do IT!**" Hana yelled before she channeled more power into the Four-Legged technique.

"Alright! Here we go!" Ayeka said before she threw her handful of projectiles and, after forming the hand seals, declared, "SHURIKEN KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!"

With those words, Ayeka herself charged forward following right behind the thrown projectiles even as more shuriken popped into existence. Now, most ninja would consider this maneuver to be pretty pathetic, considering how obvious it was that the Shuriken were intended either a shield or as a distraction for her. However, it was this assumption that Team Anko was hoping for when the maneuver had been created because it meant it would take longer for the enemy ninja to see the truth. As she closed to within fifteen feet of the enemy ninja, she prepared herself for the moment when things had the greatest potential to go wrong.

"TAIGA SHURIKEN NO JUTSU!!" Declared Ayeka and, as if by magic, the projectiles that had been moving in one direction now split into three directions.

In the past, when this maneuver had been attempted, Ayeka's control over the paths the Shuriken had been below average with just as much of a chance of hitting an ally as an enemy. Back then, Anko had insisted on using blunt wooden projectiles until the Mishima girl could prove that her control was good enough for sharp weapons to be used. Needless to say, several days worth of bruises had prompted Anko-sensei to put the maneuver on the shelf for the time being and restricted Ayeka to using her Taiga Shuriken technique to wooden posts. Now, however, it looked like either the blonde's training had paid off or something stronger was motivating her usually-vain teammate to give it her all. Whatever the case, the look of surprise on the faces of the diving suit-wearing Rain ninja proved the maneuver was a success and it was one she planned on taking full advantage of. The second she reached the five foot mark, she put her part in the maneuver into effect by abruptly changing targets from the leader to a group of three cronies to his right. It was in doing this that the true genius of the Corridor Slice maneuver was revealed. From the moment Ayeka threw the first wave of projectiles, she saturated the air in front of the enemy with sharp implements except for one single area about waist high and shoulder wide. A perfect fit for an Inuzuka using the Four Legged technique and, when she waited until the last possible moment to change targets, she triggered a reflexive action in the her previous target, the reflexive action being that the original target would attempt to attack her as she passed them in such close proximity.

That was the mistake since, in order to get to her, he would have to stick his arm into the dense cloud of flying projectiles being controlled by Ayeka's chakra. Those stupid enough not to reign in their reflexes would get their arms turned into pincushions and those that did stay still were sitting ducks. This was proven by how the Mishima girl had managed to immobilize her current targets by covering their escape routes with projectiles. With no way to dodge to the left, to the right or above, the diving suit wearing ninjas had no choice but to take her attacks head on. With this in mind, she tore into them with a smile that only half faltered when it was revealed that two of the five she'd attacked turned out to be bunshin clones.

"Stupid girl!" Spat the leader, who was keeping his arms crossed across his chest, "You would have done better to limit your attacks to me! While you may have defeated one of my brothers, the other is still out there and he can create as many clones as he likes to wear you down."

"That's what you think." She said as a cry of pain tore through the air, indicating that the hidden objective of the Corridor Slice maneuver was revealed.

"What?" Exclaimed the leader of the Rain ninja with the first real look of surprise from the beginning of the battle.

"I gotta admit, it was a good move on your part to approach our group from downwind. It kept the truth about your bunshin's a secret quite nicely." Hana said as she finished laying her target out with a series of taijutsu techniques, "Too bad for you that the wind changed direction about two seconds after you blocked my first attack. I knew immediately that those 'allies' of yours were fakes and managed to clue in Ayeka by taking up a position directly in line with your hidden friend."

"From there it was simplicity itself to make it look like we were targeting the enemies we could see rather than the one we couldn't." Ayeka explained with confidence now that two of the three enemy ninja had been dealt with, "Looks like the odds have turned in our favor."

Keeping the confident grin on her face, she waited for the big guy to choose one of two possible courses of action: either he'd beg for his life and run away or start looking desperately for a way to get things going his way again. However, as she man's body began to shake, she began to wonder if something had been missed when she'd gotten the ball rolling earlier with the maneuver.

"Hahahahahaha! Very good!" The Leader of the Rain ninja laughed with much amusement in his voice, "And here I thought that you two girls were being carried by that Uchiha the entire time! Looks like I might actually have a bit of fun after all!"

_Not good! When guys who are supposed to be scared start laughing, they're either crazy or much stronger than they look. _She thought as she prepared herself for an attack.

"Let's see how much fun you find **this!**" Growled Ayeka as she used her chakra to direct the projectiles still under her control at the Leader.

To this the man merely pulled out one of the umbrellas he had strapped to his back and deployed it. Like rocks hitting a thick stone wall, the projectiles controlled by Ayeka's Taiga Shuriken no Jutsu slammed into with zero visible effect. Not one to give up after the first try, Ayeka dipped into her holsters once again and, after throwing them used, the combination of the Shuriken Shadow Clone technique and the River Shuriken technique to once again bombard the enemy with sharp implements of death. However, much to their surprise, not only did the tough guy block those coming strait at him but he also blocked those coming from other directions with minimal repositioning effort. It was ridiculous! Why was Team Anko getting hit with so many tough opponents one after another?!

"Not bad, girlie. If I'd been anyone else, that would've nailed me for sure." The Leader said with only partial sincerity in his voice, "But if that's all you got to throw at me, then I might as well move to the big finish right now."

"It's not her you should be worrying about!" She said before leaping closer to Ayeka's position, "Hagane! Ishina! Seirei! Jūjin Bunshin!"

With those words her animal partners left their guard positions next to the cave to appear beside her and, one after another, they took on the half-beast half-human appearance she had right now herself.

"NOW GIRLS!! NIJUU GATSUGA!!" She yelled before the world went spiral and she used her sense of smell to guide her along with her eyes.

&

_**Within Xander's Mind, Same Time**_

Looking around at the golden environment that surrounded him, he had to wonder if this was what people tripping on acid or hallucinogens saw. If it was, then he was definitely glad he stayed away from that crap just like he stayed away from alcohol of any kind.

It had been like this for a while now but, for the life of him, he couldn't put an actual number to that amount of time. Had it been minutes? Hours? Days since he'd arrived here? He couldn't think of an answer and, whenever he tried to remember where he'd been previously, all he got was a vague feeling of danger. Whatever happened prior to his arrival there, he felt it was definitely time for him to leave so he began to look around for a way out. He doubted very much that it would come in the form of a door with a red and white 'exit' sign over it but he wouldn't exactly be complaining if it did. Over and over again he looked but nothing seemed to exist in this place aside from the massive golden forest scenery he'd already grown used to. It wasn't until frustration began to grow within him that he heard something break the silence of the environment aside from himself.

Someone was crying.

Whipping his head left and right as well as up and down, he tried to figure out where the noise was coming from and, five minutes later, he found it. Kneeling about twenty feet in front of him, where before there'd been nothing at all, was another him clad in the clothes he'd worn when he'd been patrolling Sunnydale after Halloween. It was with a bizarre fascination with the sight before him that he watched the form in front of him without speaking a word or taking a single step forward.

"Mom didn't have to die like that…" spoke the other him with grief coated in anger.

With a single tear drop from the other him, the scenery changed in the blink of an eye to the courtyard of Sunnydale High School just as it had been **that** night. The sight shook him greatly and when he saw the bloody body on the ground before his double the pain of losing his mother flared up within him.

"She was **murdered**…" said the Xander clone with tears trickling down his face, "…because I didn't have the power to protect her. The one time she did something I could be proud of."

With those words the scenery shifted back to the golden forest background of before but none of the emotions provoked by the reminder of his mother's death vanished with it. Instead, they seemed to grow more potent than ever until he himself was shaking and crying right along with his duplicate self.

"If you don't have power…" said the Xander Clone as it gripped the sides of its head in sorrow, "…you can't do anything!! Because I didn't have power…she was murdered trying to save my life!"

It was then though that his clone looked right at him, noticed him for the first time, and looked at him with great hatred and loathing.

"No, you let her die." Mini-Xander said in an accusing tone of voice, "you just watched her die. If only you'd had **power**…"

With these final words the golden woods were swept up in a smokey storm of purple. So dense was it that he didn't even notice the other him peel away a portion if its skin to reveal a snake-like eye.

Then it all vanished as he was once again thrust into the waking world.

&

_**The Forest Battlefield, Ten Minutes After Hana Launched her Attack**_

"Aaaahhhhhh!" Ayeka cried out as needles from the Rain ninja's umbrellas managed to make it through the hasty defense formation of her River Shuriken technique.

It had been a busy ten minutes and, in that time, they'd gone from being in a place of power over the Rain ninja to something resembling a satisfactory defense. With speed and strength the lead Rain ninja had only hinted at earlier, he was meeting Hana blow for blow. When openings in the close quarters battle did show up, she did her best to make use of them but she never managed more than a few scrapes before the bastard manipulated the needles he'd emptied from another of his umbrella's into the air and sent them at her. This forced her to recall her own projectiles with the River Shuriken technique and use it to form a sort of barrier around herself to deflect the incoming attack. The worst part of that though wasn't the fact that she wasn't able to hurt him but rather the fact that using the Taiga Shuriken no Jutsu took up a lot of chakra. Unless something happened in the next five minutes to turn things back in favor of Team Anko, she'd have no choice but to stop using the technique all together.

Not exactly a good thing, considering the Rain ninja was manipulating his needles with chakra and didn't look to be half as tired as she was right now.

It was as she readied her airborne Shuriken for another assault that Hana made the fatal mistake of coming to a stop too close to the Rain ninja. With speed one would think a bulky guy like that would be incapable of, he reached out with his right hand and clamped down on the Inuzuka girl's head. Then, before any of the mutts could come to the aide of their mistress, he slammed Hana face down into the ground with thunderous force. When the man lifted her teammate's head up, it was clear that while not unconscious, the sister of Inuzuka Kiba was seriously disoriented. This sight only seemed to amuse the man further as he let out a real belly laugh of amusement.

"Well, girls, I have to say that you've done pretty good." The lead Rain ninja said with satisfaction, "It's been awhile since I've had to work this hard. Only Hiko-sensei ever managed to push me this hard before. However, I'm getting bored, so I think it's time to drop the curtain on this little show. SAY GOODBYE, BITCH!!"

With that the sole surviving Rain ninja lifted Hana's head high over his head in preparation no doubt for a face slam to end all face slams. She was about to send every projectile she had left to the defense of her friend but a geyser of chakra suddenly exploded into existence behind her. Never before had she felt such potent chakra nor energy that disturbed her soul as badly as that which she was feeling right now. Hearing the sound of someone or something scraping against the dirt, her mind quickly went through the possibilities until there was only one possibility left. With joy and relief in her heart, she turned to welcome Xander-sama back to the fight but the words died in her mouth at the scene before her.

Slowly rising to his feet, unnatural purple chakra swirling about him like a mini-tornado, was the young man she'd chosen to be her husband. At the same time, though, he looked like a complete stranger to her because not only did his chakra feel different from what she recalled, but fiery horns were growing outwards from the back of his neck. It took her less than a minute to connect the fiery red horns to the black bruise colored ones that she'd seen on his neck following the attack by the Grass ninja. However, unlike the black ones from earlier, these fiery horns looked like they were alive as she extended themselves further and further until they began to cross over one another. Down his left arm they went until it was covered from shoulder to finger in the abnormal fiery horns. Only then did her awakened teammate do anything to let her know that both the lights were on and someone was definitely home.

"I…wouldn't do that if I were you." Xander said to the Rain ninja in a voice that was terrifyingly calm at the moment.

"So, the infamous Uchiha of Team Anko finally decided to wake up, eh?" Asked the Rain ninja with eager anticipation, "Good. These little girls you've teamed up with are good for a warm up but not much else. Though, I suppose a high and mighty noble like yourself could find quite a few uses for them when bedtime comes around."

She could not even bring herself to be angry at what the Rain ninja was implying because that was how shocked she was at the transformation Xander had undergone. However, as she watched Xander's eyes, eyes that she now could see had activated Sharingan in them, narrow, she knew that the Rain ninja was signing his death warrant with every word he spoke.

"You're going to put her down **gently**. Now." Xander stated as though merely by speaking the words the Rain ninja would do as commanded.

"Oh, right away, Uchiha-sama! I'll put her down!" The lead Rain ninja said before a cruel look blossomed on his face, "I'll put her down like the **bitch** she is!!"

With brutality unheard of, the sole survivor of the Rain ninja team pushed his hand, with Hana's head in it, towards the ground with speed and strength sufficient to shatter stone.

His arm barely moved a foot before it suddenly came to a stop.

From a position behind her to right in the enemy ninja's face, Xander had gone and at a speed that was faster than her eyes could perceive. Her mind was nearly catatonic with shock because, while her eyesight wasn't good enough to catch the movements of experienced Chuunin or Jounins when they went all out, it was still better than average. It boggled the mind that Xander-sama could move that fast and, from the signs of strain on the Rain ninja's face, the American Uchiha also had superior strength as well. No matter how hard the Rain ninja tried to force his right hand the rest of the way to the ground, it didn't not move even an inch further. It was then that the brute chose to try to use his left arm to dislodge the new combatant but this was caught with ease before being immobilized just like the right one. There was no sign of strain on Xander-sama's face, no sign of anything really, but this changed as a look of true fury began to grow on her teammate's face.

"You just made a **BIG** mistake." Xander said as fury began to seep into his voice, "And your **LAST!**"

With the fire of fury now practically radiating off of the American Uchicha, the horns that she had assumed had gone to sleep awoke again. However, this time they did more than spread further across the body of her future husband. Parts of his very body began to change shape, if only in small but no less terrifying ways. His fingernails turned black and extended outwards until they formed claws, his ears grew pointed and his teeth began to change into a configuration more commonly found in a dog. By the time the change seemed to reach its conclusion, the demonic horns that had started out on the back of his neck now covered his entire face, all of his left arm and made Xander look like he was ready to go trick or treating. However, this new look, this change, was far more terrifying than any effect a master special effects person could ever hope to achieve or that a mere costume shop could match.

It was then that the blood began to fall.

With speed and ferocity never before seen, even in the animal kingdom, Xander released the left arm of the Rain ninja and then thrust his arrowhead-shaped right hand **through** the enemy ninja's arm at a point just below the elbow. With a simple follow up jerk, he successfully separated the Rain ninja's right arm from the ninja's body, causing the leader of the trio from the Hidden Village of Rain to scream in agony. However the assault didn't end there as slammed his knee into the screaming man's stomach. While this did reduce the bloodcurdling screams to something a tad hoarse, they still filled the air, gradually rising in volume as the Rain ninja got some air back into his lungs. Throwing the severed limb aside like so much trash, Xander then raised the man up off the ground by the bloody stump of a right arm until the Rain ninja's feet were barely touching the ground.

"You know, I can forgive a lot of things. I can forgive you being a jerk because that's probably how you were raised to be." Xander said, his voice regaining some of its former calm, "I can even forgive you for taking advantage of the fact that Team Anko was a man down. However, the one thing I will **never** forgive **anyone** for is hurting one of my girls! For those that do, there's only one penalty I'll ever accept: **DEATH!**"

Then her future husband committed an act that would haunt her nightmares for years to come and almost make her incapable of looking at him ever again.

More like an animal than a man, he lunged forward and plunged his now-sharper teeth into the throat of the Rain ninja before ripping out a clump of flesh the size of a fair sized apple. Spitting it out onto the ground like it was decomposing meat, Xander-sama dropped the dead man to the ground like he was nothing but a piece of trash.

Her body was trembling, **trembling** with shock and fear, and, no matter how hard she tried to speak, her mouth wouldn't move an inch. It was only when Hana, who had spent the last couple of minutes recovering her senses from the forced introduction to the ground, began to sit up that Xander turned halfway towards her. Blood was trickling down his face from his mouth but he didn't seem to notice it or, if he did, he didn't see anything wrong with the grotesque sight he was showing everyone. As far as she could tell, he was more like a predator standing at the site of its newest kill, looking about for anything else it'd like to sink its teeth into.

"Hana? Are you alright?" Xander asked in the frigidly calm tone he'd started out with.

"Yeah I'm fine, Wannabe. What about yo--?" Hana began to ask before her eyes truly settled on the face of her teammate.

"I'm fine. In fact, I feel stronger than I ever did before." He replied, not taking notice of the shock on the Inuzuka's face, "We should probably try to make up for lost time now. I'll look for the scroll these guys have then finish them off for good."

"Finish them off?" She asked, almost afraid at what that statement most likely meant.

"Yeah. Even if these two weaklings didn't actually manage to hurt you, they'll probably come after us once they recover." Xander replied almost clinically as he began to walk over to the Rain ninja that Hana had K.O'ed, "Better to deal with them now rather than later."

Almost instantly her mind produced images of Xander repeating his savage act from moments ago, the act of biting out the throat of his prey, and she knew she couldn't allow it to happen again. With speed only partially hampered by the injuries to her legs, Ayeka crossed the distance between her and her future husband and wrapped her arms around him tightly. He stiffened at this and, for a moment, she feared he might strike out blindly at her.

"That's enough, Xander-sama! They're in no shape to come after us." She said, pleading with him to reign in his savagery, "Please! That's enough!"

As she looked into his Sharingan-filled eyes and he looked into the truly frightened eyes of his teammate something seemed to pass between them. She didn't know what it was in her currently frazzled and deeply disturbed state of mind but it seemed to cause the demonic horns to begin receding back to their origin point on the back of his neck. Within seconds not only was the bruise back to how it had originally been but all the physical changes also reversed themselves, leaving nothing but the American Uchiha's true face behind. Almost immediately, though, his legs seemed to give out from beneath him and she was forced to gently lower him to the ground below. For a time nothing but deep breaths came from Xander-sama's mouth but then a look of pure revulsion swept over his visage and he immediately got onto his hands and knees before throwing up. She kept him steady as he emptied the contents of his stomach onto the forest floor and when she figured nothing else was coming up, she helped him return to a sitting position. Looking at his face, she could still see the revulsion there but it was now in the background and, unless something big happened to remind her future husband of what he'd done, she didn't think he'd being throwing up again anytime soon.

Whatever nightmare had just occurred seemed to be over for now but there were numerous questions floating around inside her head that demanded answers.

"Okay, what the **HELL** was that!?" Was the one asked by Hana once the Inuzuka woman recovered her ability to speak.

However that was just one of many that needed to be asked.

&

_**One Day Later, En Route to the Tower, Late Afternoon, Xander's P.O.V**_

_I definitely blew it!_ Xander thought as he followed his teammates from tree branch to tree branch, _If any hidden ninjas were watching __**that**__ then no doubt they've already passed the info along to Hokage-sama and the village council._

This was pretty much all he thought about as Team Anko headed towards the tower that was the destination of all Chuunin Exam applicants. While he did his best not to think of **that** encounter in any way that was remotely positive, the Rain ninja did have the scroll they needed. With that in their possession, they'd taken a day to recover their strength before setting out for the tower at a fairly decent pace. Assuming they didn't run into any more trouble, they'd reach the tower about two or three hours after sunset. To make sure that they weren't delayed one bit, Hana's three dog partners and his partner Ava were arrayed out in front of them in a Y formation to watch for approaching dangers. All three animal partners were being especially thorough with Ava at the top of the list. No doubt the overgrown feather duster was trying to make up for letting him down with Orochimaru and the Grass ninja. Although it probably also had to do with **that** moment and the fact that the bird probably wasn't all that sure around him just yet. After all, someone who acted like a bloodthirsty carnivore wasn't exactly the sort of person a large bird of prey would want to hang out with. He could still feel the telepathic connection with his partner and she was sending him images of the terrain up ahead, so he guessed that had to count for something. He just hoped that this hadn't sunk his chances for proving himself in the eyes of Hokage-sama and the village council. He figured, for the most part, that this would double the amount of difficulty he'd have trying to prove to them that he wasn't a wolf in sheep's clothing.

It was three hours later at sunset that Ava sent back the first images of the tower close up, indicating that they'd arrive at their destination inside of an hour at their current pace. This introduced a whole new level of stress since it meant that he had to start thinking about what he'd say to Anko and Hokage-sama. He knew that Anko would be there since it only made sense for the various Jounin teachers to be at the destination to congratulate or consol their teams, depending on whether or not they passed. As for Hokage-sama, it was just a hunch he had, considering that some big bad named Orochimaru was planning something.

For a while he considered trying to edit the facts so that he wouldn't catch as much flak for what happened but every time he came up with a feasible version of events, he was stopped by one single fact. That fact was that he had no idea if he, Hana and Ayeka were the only ones who knew what truly happened. After all, Hokage-sama had stated from the beginning that it would be his actions during the Chuunin exam that would be examined by the village council. That could mean anything from a team of ANBU being assigned to follow Team Anko from beginning to end or simply requiring that he give a full report of his actions. Personally, he thought that the former possibility was more likely since if they were already suspicious of him, they'd have no reason to believe anything he said.

So, in the end, he decided to go with the honesty route and hope for the best because at least then they wouldn't be able to accuse him of lying or withholding information.

"Keep your eyes peeled!" Hana yelled as they approached the tree line surrounding the tower, "If anyone got it into their heads to set up an ambush then this is the place to do it!"

Nodding in acknowledgement, he put his issues aside and focused on keeping an eye out for traps or hidden ninja. Channeling some chakra to his eyes to activate his Sharingan, he watched as the environment as he perceived it sharpened and anything that contained chakra was made known to him, but he was only able to take all this in for a moment before a crippling pain hit him with the speed of a lightning bolt, robbing him of his strength as well as his focus. This happened at the worst possible moment as well because not only had his feet just left the safety of the tree branch behind him but the pain left him ill prepared for the impending landing. So it came to pass that when he came down on the branch he'd aimed for he collapsed rather than absorb the impact of the landing in a controlled manner. This caused him to tip forward and, while his strength was returning, it was not coming back at a pace quick enough to prevent him from falling off the branch. Fearing that he'd discover first hand what people meant when they said that it was the sudden stop that killed someone falling from a great height, he closed his eyes. However, before his feet could leave the branch beneath him entirely, a pair of strong hands clamped onto his left arm and pulled him to safety.

"Xander-sama?! What's wrong?" Ayeka asked from his left, claiming responsibility for keeping him from a nasty fall.

"M-my n-neck!" he said, although it was not without difficulty as the sharp pain that had ruined his leap still lingered and throbbed in his body.

"What the--!? The bruise! It's spreading again!!" Ayeka gasped in both surprise and fear at what her eyes were conveying to her.

Instantly his mind provided an image of what the blonde Mishima girl was seeing at the moment and, just as quickly, he fought against the thing that had turned him into an animal. With every fiber of his being he willed the three black horn shaped stains on the back of his neck to shrink back to their smallest size. He truly wished that he could will them completely out of existence but knew that that would be too easy for something as foul as the 'gift' Orochimaru bestowed upon him. For what seemed like forever he threw his will against the unnatural thing on his neck, treating the battle as if it was the one battle he could not permit himself to lose. Eventually the pain that heralded its growth faded to a level that was more bearable but that did not necessarily mean that it was safe to stop. Turning his eyes to Ayeka, he conveyed he question he wanted to utter but dared not to just in case he wound up jinxing himself.

"I-It looks like it's turned off now." Ayeka replied after a few seconds of examination.

"G-good." Was all he could say to this bit of news.

A moment later Hana dropped onto the branch to his right along with her three animal partners.

"If that thing's causing problems again then we have haul ass to the tower so the medical-nins can take a look at it." Said the Inuzuka girl with only a little concern filtering into her words, "Let's go!"

With a reassuring nod to Ayeka, he rose to his feet and, after taking a moment to make sure that he had the strength to make it the rest of the way to the tower, he leapt forward after his feral teammate. This time, however, he would keep his Sharingan turned off, since it was his best guess that the damned markings on the back of his neck would only cause him problems if he tried to mould chakra. While he didn't know how much chakra moulding would be enough to trigger another bombardment of pain, he wasn't willing to take any chances. Also, regardless of what the medical-nins or Hokage-sama said when they arrived at the tower, he was going to stay in this Exam to the bitter end. If moulding chakra was removed from play, then he'd rely the skills he'd learned before he'd even found out what chakra was never mind how to use it.

He was **NOT** going to let the bite from Orochimaru rob him of his one chance to show everyone what kind of ninja he really was!!

&

_**The Tower, Room 9, One Hour Later, Anko's P.O.V**_

As the smoke cleared and the summoning jutsu concluded, there was only one thing that Mitarashi Anko could say.

"Man I hate doing that!!" She growled in annoyance as the lingering effects of the jutsu on her body faded.

She knew that it was a traditional way of concluding the Second Phase of the Chuunin Exam but traveling by summoning always left her feeling like she'd left something important behind. It was twice as difficult for her to endure this time around since she was still feeling the lingering effects of the cursed seal working her body over. Even though it had been more than a day since it had first activated in **his** presence and then again when the ANBU unit arrived, she could still feel its taint preying upon the cells of her body. However, when she'd been informed that her team was quickly approaching the tower, she felt that her own discomfort could wait. It was now time to see if both her greatest hope along with her darkest fear had come to pass and no one was going to keep her from seeing the truth with her own eyes. So, despite the protests of those who'd expressed worry about her condition, she'd moved to the room where she'd depart if her students had successfully acquired both Heaven and Earth scrolls. It had only been with seconds to spare that the man watching the security camera feed had positively identified both scrolls, allowing her to get into position. In the end, though, it had been worth it because now she could behold Team Anko at a point two steps shy of passing the Chuunin exam.

Seeing them look at her in surprise, no doubt not expecting that the scrolls would be used in combination to summon her to the room, she immediately adopted what she'd been told time and again was the proper appearance of a Jounin teacher.

"Looks like you have finally arrived, my students." She said doing her best impersonation of the Third, "By using both Heaven and Earth scrolls to summon me, you've proven your worth as Genin and completed this phase of the Exam."

Seeing the completely confused and dumbstruck looks on their faces, she found the sight just too amusing, thus a chuckle escaped from her mouth ruining her impression. With the cat out of the bag and her attempt at humor brought to an end, there was only one thing left to say.

"Congrats you three brats! You passed!" she exclaimed with genuine pride in her students for making it this far in the exam.

This had the desired effect and as one smiles of joy blossomed over the faces of her students before they exclaimed out loud letting all within earshot know of their happiness. For Hana this was followed by her getting down on her knees and hugging her animal partners, silently thanking them for helping her as well as congratulating them on their own accomplishments. Ayeka, on the other hand, did something that was both a surprise and not a surprise at the same time as she wrapped her arms around Xander's neck pulling him into one scorcher of a kiss. Unlike that one time during their training, though, Xander didn't try to get away or even struggle…much. Fortunately, though, Ayeka eventually pulled back, allowing both of them to breath again though this probably had more to do with Ava screeching in their ears. To this cry of complaint, Xander reached up and pet his animal partner to show that he appreciated her efforts during the Second Phase of the Exam as well.

However it was as he lowered his arm that Xander grimaced in pain, reflexively grabbing ahold of Ayeka's shoulder in order to remain standing. She didn't even think before she rushed to his side with her eyes going to where she **knew** the source of his pain was located. It didn't even take her a second to find the cursed seal and, while there was a faint orange glow coming from it, the blasted mark had not fully activated. All at once her greatest fear since she'd learned that **he** had returned to the village was confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt. Sadness and urgency filled her soul as she realized what the forsaken mark would mean for Xander for the remainder of his life. Nevertheless, she was determined to fight against this destiny even though, deep in her heart, she knew it was useless.

"Medical-nin! Get in here **NOW!**" She ordered loudly while knowing that there was little that could be done aside from lessening the pain the American Uchiha was probably feeling at the moment.

With speed equal to the urgency she had placed in her command, three medical-nin ran into the room, homing in on the person they judged to be the reason they had been summoned. She knew the precise moment they spotted the cursed seal but all it took was a single look from her to let them know that divulging anything about the mark on Xander's neck would be a bad move on their part. Instead they focused on treating the symptoms that the Hellmouth-raised Uchiha was exhibiting. It wasn't that she wanted to keep the facts from her students on purpose but rather that she wanted to consult with Hokage-sama first. While she might have been that **snake's** student, the Third had been Orochimaru's teacher and would, thus, know how best to handle this delicate situation. While she would recommend that they continue with the Chuunin Selection Exam as planned, just like that **bastard** wanted, she'd recommend that every step be taken to protect Xander. Had she not been his Jounin teacher, she would have insisted that both Xander and Sasuke be removed from the Exam with ANBU escorts stationed around them both at all times. She knew all too well how the cursed seal would react the second either Uchiha tried to mould chakra, how it would forcibly extract power out of their bodies, and undermine their potential as ninja from within.

_But I know how much this all means to him._ She thought as the medical-nin insistently led the Uchiha towards the inner hallways of the tower, _It's not about showing off for him or even about proving himself in the eyes of the village council. It was about casting doubt on the assumption that his mother was a traitor to Konoha. Like that asshole Ebisu, many people who've discovered who Xander's mother was consider him to be a traitor in the making. By fighting his way through this Exam like a true ninja, he plans on forcing them to reconsider their opinions of Uchiha Jun'ko._

So, in the end, all she could do was try to help him through the pain inflicted on him by his cursed seal and try to persuade Hokage-sama when he arrived to allow Xander to continue participating in the Exam. She was just happy that the village council was still in the village and that the tower was being manned by people who would bow to Sarutobi's judgment on the matter. Well everyone perhaps with the exception of that asshole prick Ebisu, who had arrived not long after she had and was already making a pest of himself with everyone else. She fully expected the jackass to blow Xander's cursed seal out of proportion and perhaps even send someone to inform the village council so that both parties who harbored ill will towards the American Uchiha could attack his efforts at once. However, if that dumbass thought he was going to have an easy time of that, he was sadly mistaken. While she might not be able to pound him into unconsciousness like before, she could help the others find **perfectly** feasible reasons not to follow his orders or to somehow misunderstand them. That would buy Hokage-sama time to get to tower and mount an unassailable defense to counter whatever argument Ebisu or the village council might come up with.

_With Hokage-sama on my side, that asshole Ebisu doesn't stand a chance!_ She thought as she followed the medical-nins and Xander to the Tower infirmary.


	12. Choices as the Third Phase Begins

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever so any legal action taken against me would wind up costing you more than you could possibly make. I write this for my own personal enjoyment and for any readers who enjoy my work.

&

_**The Tower Infirmery, One Hour Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_I am __**SO**__ gonna kick your ass next time I see you, snake face! _Xander thought as he glared out the window of the tower infirmary.

It had been an hour since he had been taken here by the medical-nins and, while their efforts to ease the pain of the seal on his neck had helped, there was some lingering discomfort. For the most part it was just dull throbbing at the back of his neck, like a bruise that was only half healed, but occasionally the pain would spike a bit, making him wince. At the medical-nin's suggestion he refrained from molding chakra at all since they were worried about how it might affect his condition. Considering his near miss with a branch in the forest after he'd activated his Sharingan eyes, there was definitely some truth to that statement. He'd been told that Hokage-sama would be arriving soon and that the Third would speak with him about his encounter with the grass ninja in the forest. From the way they were speaking, this wasn't the first time that snake face had been in Konoha and whatever he did last time he was here had shaken up the ruling body. He didn't like the idea of that since anyone who could shake up one of the strongest nations in the region was definitely bad news. This fact wouldn't stop him from kicking the bastard's ass down the line, of course, but it was enough to motivate him to train for a bit before seeking the chalk faced ninja out.

_I figure if I train like preventing the end of the world was on my shoulders and I had only three years to get ready, I might be able to take on snake face then. _He thought as he recalled the battle between Team Anko and Orochimaru.

While he steadfastly avoided the memories attached to his little present, he did his best to examine each exchange of blows and the effect they had on both sides of the battle. Orochimaru definitely had the edge in speed, as evidenced by how he managed to grab Hana mid air, but he also possessed considerable strength. It was also clear that the man was Jounin level or higher based on the ease at which he managed to defeat three competent Genin using only basic jutsu. That meant that in order to defeat him one day he had to work his ass off to reach the level of Jounin both in how he thought and what he could do. Considering the amount of time it took your average Genin to reach that level, it'd probably take him a little over three years to achieve that rank. Sure, there were members of several prestigious ninja clans that were prodigies capable of becoming Jounin sooner but he didn't consider himself to be a genius. As far as he was concerned, he was just your everyday ninja who just happened to belong to one of those prestigious ninja clans. After all, if he'd been a prodigy then he would have been able to defeat Team Gai and then put down by Maito Gai himself. Instead he'd gotten banged up and only managed to give Lee, Tenten and Ahou-sama the equivalent of a black eye before being taken down by the Jounin instructor. Still, he'd received some praise from the weird taijutsu user and he supposed that counted for something, somewhere.

_Still, it'd probably be best if next time I bump into someone like Orochimaru that I turn tail and make a run for it._ He thought with some concern, _It doesn't matter if a mouse throws everything it has at an approaching snake, it's still going to get eaten in the end._

It was then that he heard the door open and, turning to see who it was, he was pleased to see that it was Hokage-sama. He'd heard someone yelling earlier and it had sounded all too like that prick Ebisu and that was the last person he wanted to see or talk to. He had no doubt that if that asshole caught wind of what happened in the forest, he'd spend half the time listening to the guy go on one of his rants and the other half doing all he could to spread the word of the 'tainted, evil Uchiha'. Fortunately the yelling had stopped about fifteen minutes ago so hopefully that meant something 'unfortunate' had happened to the jackass that would keep Ebisu elsewhere for a while.

"I've heard from your sensei that you and your team managed to make a good accounting of yourself in the Forest of Death." Hokage-sama said as he pulled a nearby chair to a position near the bed, "According to what I've also heard, you used excellent teamwork and managed to pull off quite a few surprises. Good to hear!"

"Yeah, me and the others managed to handle the battles pretty good together." He said before he remembered the sour points of those battles, "Still, we made some seriously nasty mistakes, too. Me in particular."

To this the Third Hokage puffed on his pipe for a few moments and looked to be deep in thought about something returning his gaze to the American Uchiha.

"Indeed. I had a team of ANBU follow your team from a distance under strict orders to observe your progress and only intervene if death seemed imminent." Sarutobi said with some regret that he had done something that indicated a lack of trust in the young ninja, "So I know of your battle with the false Grass ninja, Orochimaru and the Rain ninja."

"I had a feeling that I'd be monitored throughout the exam." He said before he brought up an important issue, "However, if an ANBU team was following me and the others, then why didn't they jump in when Orochimaru showed up? I might know next to nothing about Snake Face but I get the impression that he's bad news."

"Indeed. He is an S-class rogue ninja that has been on the loose for some time." Hokage-sama replied with great weight in his words, "As for why the ANBU unit didn't intervene, it would seem that they were neutralized before Orochimaru confronted you. It was only when we were alerted to his presence by Anko that they were discovered and a replacement team was then assigned to watch you."

S-CLASS!? That was a ranking reserved for those ninjas who possessed power and skill on par with the Kages! They could take on dozens of ninjas of lesser rank and wipe the floor with them! With this bit of information, it was no wonder that he, Ayeka and Hana had been so completely schooled by the chalk-faced bastard. The jackass had probably been playing with them from the very beginning even when on the receiving end of the potent jutsu's! It pissed him off but, at the same time, he knew that if Orochimaru **had** gone all out that Team Anko would have been obliterated. So, while it bruised his ego somewhat to know that he had been toyed with by his adversary, he was glad that Mr. Snake had gone easy on them. However, the second he got strong enough, he would make that monster regret not having killed him when he had the chance.

"Is the first ANBU team alright?"

"Yes, but barely. It was lucky for them that the second team found them when they did. I was informed by the medical-nins a short while ago that all three will live." The Third Hokage replied with genuine sympathy for the injured ninja.

"Good." He said genuinely relieved that the three ANBU ninja would be okay.

"I was also informed about the cursed seal on the back of your neck and how it affected you during your confrontation with the Rain ninja." Hokage-sama stated before falling silent to hear what the newest ninja of Konoha had to say.

"I…I don't know what to say about that…" he said as his mind became a storm of emotions and thoughts, "I don't remember all of what happened during the… encounter. Only flashes, bits and pieces, but it's enough to make me completely disgusted with myself. I should've been strong enough to stop myself!"

"Do not be too hard on yourself. Not much is known about the cursed seal since Konoha has only encountered it once before." Sarutobi said in order to comfort the young man, "From what we've learned, the cursed seal is incredibly potent when first it activates. The pain combined with the surge of power that is forcibly extracted from the bearer's body puts a great deal of strain on the mind. I believe it is called temporary insanity in America."

"Yeah but…" Xander said, unwilling just yet to forgive himself just yet for the bloody way he defeated that Rain ninja.

"Do not worry yourself over what is already past. Instead you need to choose what you wish to do from here onwards," the Third Hokage said before taking another puff from his pipe. "I will tell you that, in all likelihood, news of what transpired in the forest will have reached the Konoha Council by now. How do you wish to proceed?"

"You're letting me choose?"

"I would have it no other way. While it will be difficult to persuade the Council to allow you to continue to participate in the Chuunin Exam, I will do my best if that is your wish." Hokage-sama replied with resolve on the tone of his voice.

With the backing of the Third Hokage and current ruler of Konoha, he had some major firepower in his corner to back any choice he made. At the same time, though, he had to wonder if he really should continue through to the end of the exam, considering his near miss in the forest. He'd learned from that encounter that molding chakra was one possible way that the cursed seal could be triggered. If that happened during the next phase of the exam, he'd be vulnerable for several seconds until he managed to recover and every second was precious in a confrontation between ninja. Also, there was the chance that something might happen to cause the cursed seal to take ahold of him again and then it could be a friend that died by his hand. His hands clenched into fists at the thought of Ayeka, Hana, Anko or anyone else he'd met since arriving in Konoha perishing because he couldn't keep Orochimaru's **gift** in check.

_But if I drop out then… then that __**lie**__ will continue to live on. _He thought as he recalled the main reason he wanted to do well in the exam.

The lie in question, of course, was that his mother was a traitor to Konoha.

From the first time he had heard it from Hokage-sama and heard Ahou-sama say that he believed every word of it, a fire had blossomed in his soul. He became determined to prove everyone wrong and restore his mother's good name. However, the ways he could do that right away were limited since getting access to previous evidence and asking questions would be hampered by everyone's opinion of his mother. Fortunately the Third had provided him with a way to not only improve his ninja skills and prove to everyone how wrong they were about everything. He'd prove to them that he was what every ninja should aspire to be and that there was not a single treacherous bone in his entire body. By proving that, perhaps he'd be proving that they might have also misjudged his mother and that would be a big step in the right direction. From there, he could make every day a glorious example of how wrong they were and once they'd loosened up enough he'd take a look at the evidence remaining from the old investigation.

_I can't give up! I must keep fighting no matter what the odds are! _He thought before turning to Hokage-sama and saying, "I want to keep going in the Chuunin exam and I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to make that happen."

"I had a feeling you would say that." Sarutobi said with a smile of pride in the boy's determination, "However, the most potent weapon against that happening now is the cursed seal inflicted by Orochimaru. The Council remembers well the crimes of Orochimaru and anything he does will be treated with great suspicion and mistrust."

"Yeah. The problem is: what do I do about it? Can it be removed?"

"Unfortunately, no. Attempts at removing the seal found on the ninja all failed." Sarutobi replied with a negative shake of his head, "The substance that is the source of the seal grows and replicates within the blood of the bearer with every second that passes. Every time we thought that the last of it had been removed, the seal reappeared within three days."

"Then what options are left?" Xander asked, feeling worried now that the best solution to his dilemma was proven to be impossible.

"The best option we have would be to use a sealing jutsu to lock away the cursed seal. Restrained by the fuijin jutsu, the cursed seal should be kept dormant even if you mold chakra to execute techniques." Hokage-sama replied while letting the young ninja know how serious this option was, "However, because of the nature of the cursed seal, the fuijin used will have to be powerful and will be difficult to endure. You'll likely need every day from here until the end of the Second Phase to recover if we do it right away."

"Let's do it." He said without reservation and a fire in his eyes that made it clear that he would not let anything hold him back.

&

_**A Special Treatment Room, Forest Tower, Twenty Minutes Later**_

_**Anko's P.O.V**_

_I hope that this solution doesn't wind up being too much for him._ Anko thought as she looked at Xander sitting in the middle of constellation of symbols drawn in blood.

It had been five minutes ago when she'd received the summons from Hokage-sama to meet him in the special treatment room of the Tower. She'd known instantly what the reason for this was and so, with a short explanation to Ayeka and Hana, she'd gone to the room in question. When she'd arrived, Xander had already removed his shirt and had taken his place in the middle of the treatment circle. It was then explained to her that they were going to use a sealing technique to lock away the cursed seal so that the American-raised Uchiha could continue to compete in the Chuunin Exam. However, what surprised her more than anything was that Hokage-sama himself was going to select the fuijin jutsu used and then do it. She had thought initially that it would be done by one of the medical-nins currently stationed in the building for the Second Phase of the Chuunin Exam, but this made her all the more optimistic about her student's chances for continuing to fight for his dream in the Exam. If the ninja known as 'The Professor' couldn't keep the cursed seal in check so Xander could fight, no one could.

_I don't recognize the symbol configuration or the sealing technique that Hokage-sama is preparing for at all._ She thought as she examined each symbol and each pattern on the floor, _Based on what symbols I can recognize, it is definitely a B ranked jutsu or higher._

A minute later the constellation of symbols on the floor appeared to be complete and, after putting a band-aid on the finger he'd cut to draw them, the Third approached Xander.

"This sealing technique is called yami seki fuijin and it is an A rank technique. Normally it is used as a means of sealing away a ninja's ability to use chakra but, in this case, its effects will be focused entirely on the cursed seal on your neck." Hokage-sama said as he went over the details of the technique about to be executed, "However this technique has three pillars of power that are key to its success. The first pillar is your chakra in that the more you have, the stronger this pillar will be. The second pillar is your mind and the strength of your refusal to use the powers of the cursed seal or let it control you. The final pillar is your soul that is connected to both your chakra and your mind, allowing it to affect both depending on its condition. If even two of these pillars are somehow compromised, then there is a good chance that the cursed seal will activate. Do you still wish to proceed?"

"Let's get the show on the road. The end of the Second Phase of the exam is only a few days away and I'll every last one of them to recover in time for the next Phase." Xander replied with determination in his voice that would not be swayed.

"Very well. Prepare yourself." The Third Hokage said as he began to go through a seal combination at least ten seals long, "YAMI SEKI FUIJIN NO JUTSU!!"

With that the ninja known as 'The Professor' slapped his right hand over the cursed seal on the back of Xander's neck and, less than a second later, the technique began to do its work. It began to do its work and Xander **screamed** in pain. She cringed at this because, while she was not the one the jutsu was being used on, it still hurt her to see someone she had helped to train in such pain. Since she had first picked him up from the hospital and took him into her team, she had come to know him quite well. Most times he was a goofball who did his best to encourage smiles in the people around him and comfort them whenever they were troubled. However, in battle, he had a fire in him that granted him a degree of focus that made him a force to be reckoned with. Even if he wasn't quite at a level where he could be considered a problem for a Jounin, she could easily see a time coming where that would change. It might take a few years but she was confident that if he kept going at his current pace, he would make his family proud with how swiftly he would wise through the ranks.

As the jutsu was carried out, the lines of symbols that had been drawn into the floor with the blood of the Hokage began to rise into the air. When they finally reached a level equal with Xander's neck, it began to rotate around him, faster and faster, until it looked like a whirlpool. Once a certain speed was achieved, the symbols were rapidly drawn into the spot beneath Hokage-sama's hand until none were visible to her eyes. When the Third lifted his hand from Xander's neck, she could see the result of the fuijin technique surrounding the stigma that Orochimaru had placed there. It formed a complete triangle around the demonic-looking horns and could be described as complex calligraphy compacted as much as possible on each of the three sides. With steam rising off of the triangle, she could tell that a great deal of chakra had been used in the jutsu and that fact assured her that the cursed seal would not be a problem. However, as she looked at how hard Xander was breathing, she could tell that the jutsu had taken a lot out of him both physically and mentally. His eyes were starting to glaze a bit and the single arm that was keeping him upright was trembling with the strain of holding his body in a sitting position.

"Remember, Xander: chakra, mind and soul. If two or more of those things are weakened or placed in turmoil, the cursed seal will activate when you mold chakra." Hokage-sama said as he too sensed that Xander's ability to remain conscious was waning, "Keep this fact in mind at all times."

"Yeah…no p-problem…I…won't…forg—" Xander managed to force out before his will failed him and he slumped to the floor unconscious.

"Take him back to his room." Sarutobi ordered the two medical-nins that had helped prepare the treatment room.

"Hai!" both men said before the immediately moved in with a stretcher and put Xander onto it.

Once they were gone, she turned to the Third and could see that while the execution of the technique had been successful there was something troubling the elder ninja. The man had a look of deep thought on his forehead as he lit the tobacco in his pipe and began to let out puffs of smoke every so often. She tried to think of what it could be but nothing came immediately to mind since she noticed nothing odd about the American Uchiha prior to the Second Phase of the exam. Stepping forward, she decided she would ask the Third about this because if there was some sort of complication or issue that warranted his concern then she too should be concerned.

"Hokage-sama? Is there something--?" she asked with her own concern clear in her voice.

"When I performed the technique on Xander, I was able to get a sense of his chakra pathways and his capacity. It was difficult to make it out since most of my concentration had to be on performing the jutsu but I could still sense it." Sarutobi replied before she even finished asking the question, "There was a sense of familiarity to it, as though I had felt something similar before, but could sense nothing more than that during the technique."

"Is something wrong with him? Is it going to interfere with his ability to continue competing in the exam?" She asked, afraid that even with the cursed seal locked away, that something might be present that could hamper his ability to fight.

"Hmmmm. I do not think so." Hokage-same replied confidently as he continued to puff on his pipe, "What I felt within him seemed to be dormant and did not react to the sealing jutsu at all. Unless something extraordinary happens, I believe it will remain that way."

"Good." She said with no little relief in her voice.

She had been worried for a time that yet another obstacle would be placed in the path of her newest student but, if the Professor felt that everything was okay, then she would have faith in his judgment.

"Right, now what he needs more than anything is rest." The Third said as he began to walk towards the entrance/exit of the room, "Still, he has three days before the Second Phase of the Exam is due to end, so he should be recovered enough by then to compete."

"Good. I'd better go tell Ayeka and Hana that it looks like they'll get the chance to compete in the next Phase after all." She said as followed Hokage-sama to the door.

The others had been wandering around the Tower waiting for news on their ailing teammate and since patience was not a strong point for either of them, just about everyone was giving Ayeka and Hana a wide berth. A smart move since when either girl got impatient they tended to deal with people that irritated them a bit more harshly than most people could justify.

_I just hope they don't do anything to get themselves __**AND**__ Xander disqualified from the Exam. _She thought as she picked up the pace of her walking a bit, _It'd be something of a waste if they got this far only to piss off the wrong people._

&

_**One Day Later, The Tower Infirmery, Afternoon, Ayeka's P.O.V**_

_I hope he wakes up soon._ Ayeka thought as she looked down at her future husband from the chair near the side of the bed, _Sure, we have two more days until the Second Phase of the Exam ends, but I had this big seduction scenario planned out and ready to use if we managed to get to the Tower on the fourth day. If he doesn't come to then all that work will just be a big waste!_

Still, if she wanted to be perfectly honest with herself, she wanted him to wake up because, until he did and cracked one of those lame jokes, she just wouldn't be able to convince herself that he was going to be okay. They'd been told by Anko-sensei that the reason he was unconscious was because the treatment used on that mark on his neck had taken a lot out of him. She'd taken a look at the mark, a careful one, and could see that it was some kind of sealing jutsu. While not her area of expertise (something else she was going to have to become more proficient at, along with healing jutsus), she could tell that this was one of the more difficult ones to perform as well as one of the most complex. She wasn't sure whether she should be happy that such a strong technique had been used or worried that the three horns required such a potent jutsu to keep it in check. It frustrated her that there was nothing she could do to help Xander aside from sit at his bedside in the hopes that her mere presence would comfort him. She hoped that Anko-sensei had been correct when she'd said that Xander would be back on his feet in time for the conclusion of the Second Phase. She knew how important it was to her Uchiha teammate to prove himself in the Exam and didn't even want to think of how the young man from America would react if he wound up being disqualified.

It had been during their journey towards the Tower, after the bloody defeat of the Rain ninja, that she'd learned from him why precisely he wanted to do so well in the Exam. Apparently his mother had been suspected of crime by the K.P.D six months before he was born and had been forced to flee the region. He wouldn't elaborate on what the crime was but, if it had been serious enough to warrant leaving the region entirely, it must have been pretty serious. He had gone on to explain how he'd rediscovered his ninja heritage, how his mother had been killed by Cloud ninja trying to protect him and how he had come to be in Konoha. It had been heart-wrenching to hear how he'd learned of the reason his mother had fled and how it had made him feel. Knowing this, it had been perfectly logical that he would try to change the general opinion of his mother by first changing their opinion of himself by proving to them throughout the exam that he was an honorable person who would never dream of betraying either those close to him or those he considered to be innocent. If he succeeded in making that the general opinion of the people of Konoha, then he would cause them to reconsider their opinion of his mother a little bit, to erase their opinion of Uchiha Jun'ko completely. That would take time, of course, but like the saying went: the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

_If I can help him in any way, I will. _She thought watching the chest of her future husband, _There is no way that a heartless criminal could give birth to a son like Xander._

The first thing that came to mind was to try and use her mother's connection to get a look at the criminal records connected to the case involving Uchiha Jun'ko. Once she had a better idea of what crime she had been accused of, she could formulate a plan to either discredit the evidence or come up with an innocent reason for Jun'ko being accused. However she would have to wait until she had more free time to do so and would have to be careful with how she used her mother's name to gain access. If word got back to her mother that she was doing something fishym then it would only cause her all sorts of problems. This had to be kept low profile until she had some effective information at her disposal to either discourage people from getting in her way or to gain their aid in digging into the event. Then, once she felt her arsenal was enough to take to Hokage-sama, she would inform Xander-sama of her efforts on his behalf. That would be a potent victory in gaining his love and put her on a completely different level than any rivals that might still remain. After all, what female ninja would be able to compare to her after she all but handed the tools he'd need to completely clear his mother thanks to hard work as well as some risk to herself. He'd be **so** impressed by her efforts he would, without a doubt, begin to look at her as more than just a teammate and a friend. It would be then that he'd be in a receptive state of mind to finally entering into a girlfriend/boyfriend with her.

_What happens after that will __**be WONDERFUL!**_ She thought as her mind came up with images of dates and evenings snuggling with him at romantic locations.

She couldn't keep the smile from spreading across her face or the occasional blush at some of the steamy images her imagination produced. While imagining herself with Xander-sama in a co-ed bath or some other suitably arousing situation was nothing new, this was the first time when she had an effective way of making the situations come true. It was then that an idea came to her that both interested her and made her nervous. In order for it to work, she had to be sure that none of other people in the Tower would be coming in any time soon. It would also require a certain amount of room on the bed but, fortunately, the one on which Xander rested was the largest in the room and was meant for either one very big person or two average people, so that at least was sufficient. With one of the two conditions met, she just had to weigh the likelihood of anyone walking in on her before she had her fill of her idea.

_Well, the medical-nins were just in to take a look at him a couple of minutes ago so I at least have an hour or two before they pay another visit_. She thought as a thoughtful look manifested on her face, _Hana'll be busy taking care of that overgrown feather duster Ava for a couple of hours at least. The connection between the eagle hawk and Xander-sama was apparently strong enough to transmit his pain back to her. Not enough to put her in the same condition as him but enough to require medical care._

So, all in all, the odds of someone coming in during the next hour or two was slim unless a new arrival felt the need to be nosy and stick their head in the door. So, with a smile of someone who has been given a golden opportunity to have some fun, she got off the chair she had been sitting on and **into** the bed that now held her future husband. Fortunately for her he had turned onto his side during his sleep, making it possible for her to lie on the bed without having to worry about falling off. Spooning him from behind, she settled into the position she would make sure became the norm in the near future and she would enjoy every minute of this test drive.

&

_**One Day Later, The Tower, Evening, Hana's P.O.V**_

_Anko-sensei better keep her word and keep that __**slut**__ Ayeka away from Wannabe's room!_ Inuzuka Hana thought as she walked about the Tower hallways, _I can't believe those idiot medical-nins let them stay like __**THAT**__ for six hours!!_

It had been yesterday evening, after she'd finished tending to Ava, that she'd gone to see how the only other injured member of Team Anko was doing. She'd heard earlier from Anko-sensei that Hokage-sama himself had performed a jutsu on Wannabe that would keep that mark on his neck in check. It had been a load off of her mind to know that all was once more well with her team and that they still had a chance of making it all the way through the Chuunin Exam. Not that that was her primary focus or anything but it was still a plus to know that they still had a shot at their overall goal despite what had happened in the forest. However, when she'd entered the infirmary where Wannabe slept, what did she find but Ayeka curled up behind Wannabe on the bed sound asleep. If they'd been naked and under the sheets, she'd have assumed they'd **done** something and were just recovering from the fatigue of **doing it,** but as they weren't she was only **half** as pissed as she might have been. With the volume of her yelling making up for the lack of violence (she wasn't about to get in trouble with the medical-nins or Anko), she managed to wake up Ayeka but apparently Xander was still tired enough to sleep through her yelling. After a brief argument in which the blonde bimbo only played the innocent card for half of it, both of them were kicked out of the room by the medical-nins. However, in the twenty four hours since then, Ayeka had been stopped from sneaking back in **six** times and was now being watched carefully by Anko-sensei.

After Anko had stepped in to babysit the blonde brat, she'd decided that before turning in for the night she'd explore the Tower a bit. Not that she hadn't seen most of it since they'd gotten there but there were still a few places she hadn't been that could be interesting. The first was coming up on her left and was, according to Anko, the place where they'd all be meeting once the last of the Genins who passed the Second Phase arrived. Walking into the room, she could see that it was mostly a large flat area of stone with a raised platform at the far end as well as a balcony on either side. Behind the raised platform were two stone hands that were in the classic position for molding chakra and above the hands was something that looked like a scoreboard for a sporting event. Walking about the place, her partners trailing close behind her, she began to scout out the area since she had a feeling she knew what the next Phase of the Exam would be. So far they'd had a Phase to test their information gathering skills and that required intelligence and cunning. Then Second Phase had been a test of their teamwork and that required that they be capable of executing a coordinated attack against an enemy unit. By her logic that meant that the next Phase of the Exam would be a test of their individual abilities by putting them in one-on-one matches made up of those who passed the Second Phase.

_If that's the case then the smart thing to do is look at this battlefield from every angle in order to figure out how I can use it to my advantage. _She thought as she took every part of the room into account from the floor to the ceiling.

There was a lot of room to move around, so there was plenty of space to evade attacks or launch them from a variety of different directions. There weren't any signs of cover readily available, so hiding or preparing ambushes so any tactics or strategies thought up would have to be centered around outmaneuvering ones enemy. With her partners she'd outnumber whoever she got matched against four to one and most of the Genins would be either her own age or younger. So, unless her opponent had a really powerful jutsu or thought up some clever strategy to neutralize most of her techniques, she'd have the advantage. However, only two teams had shown up thus far, one of which she knew since it was her brother's team and the other being the team from the hidden village of Sand. She knew her brother's moves because she had been taught them as well and had a more than passing familiarity with those jutsus used by his teammates. Those Sand ninjas were something of a mystery to her since she'd never seen them fight nor had she ever seen other Sand ninjas in action. She had noticed that Hagane, Ishina and Seirei were avoiding the room where the Sand team was resting in until the end of the Second Phase. She'd asked them what was bothering them but, much like her, they had quite a bit of pride and refused to tell her the real reason they were avoiding the Sand team. The reason they gave was that they didn't like the stench that was coming out of the place but she could tell that something major had unsettled them.

_Those three must be pretty strong if the chakra they're giving off is enough to scare my girls away._ She thought as her theory centered on the fact that Inuzuka dogs could tell how strong a ninja was by the smell of their chakra.

Still, she'd only be facing one person at a time, so any Sand ninja she fought would only be a third as strong as the smell her girls had picked up. Also she'd seen enough during the First Phase to have a decent idea of what abilities they had. Judging by the huge fan on the blonde's back, she probably used wind-based attack and defense techniques. Troublesome but something she could handle with a little thought put into her battle strategies. The guy in the black pajamas was apparently a user of the puppeteer style jutsus but that was a point in her favor since it meant he wasn't very good at close quarters combat, which was her specialty. She just had to make sure that she got past his puppet, 'cause after that, their match would be all hers.

As for who the other Genin would be, she didn't know but she was confident she'd be able to handle any one of them.

"Oi! Sis!" Came a voice from behind her.

Turning around, she could see Kiba walking up to her with Akamaru predictably sitting on her brother's head like the canine usually chose to do. She'd only met with her brother once after arriving at the Tower but she was soon called away when Ava had screeched before falling unconscious. He and his teammates had apparently managed to hit a spot of good luck and get the scroll they needed on the very first day of the Second Phase. However Shino had let it slip that it had been some blood sucking leeches that had taken the fight out of their enemies rather than them. Not her preferred way of defeating an enemy and she let him know it when they spoke the first time. Naturally, he'd pointed out that at least all of his team members had come to the Tower more or less unharmed but **that,** she had shown him, was a mistake. One throw across the room had made it clear she didn't like being reminded of mistakes Team Anko had made but Ava's screech had prevented her from doing any more.

Perhaps God had decided to give her the chance to finish what she started now.

"What do you want, brat?"

"Just wondering if that Uchiha you have on your team is any better." Kiba replied before a similar smirk appeared on his face, "After all, I can't beat you in the next stage of the Exam if your team gets disqualified!"

"He'll be fine, brat! He might be a ninja wannabe but he's tough." She said firing back some words of her own, "It'll take more than some weak jutsu to keep him down for good."

"Good. In fact, I hope I get to fight him in the next Phase of the Exam!" Kiba said, laying on his tough guy attitude a little thick, "Then I can be known as the Inuzuka who managed to outfight and defeat an Uchiha!"

"You're dreaming, bro! Wannabe might be the weakest member of Team Anko but that just means he'll actually have to work hard to win." She said, sounding like she was dismissing her brother's abilities but with a twinkle in her eyes that implied otherwise, "Try not to make an ass of yourself if you fight him, 'kay?"

"We'll see. Anyways, the real reason I showed us is because the medical-nins want you to take a look at Ava again." Kiba said, losing **some** of his cocky attitude, "Something about old wounds flaring up or something."

That made her frown a bit since, while she had been aware that there were lingering traces on Ava from wounds the bird had suffered before she met Wannabe, they'd been fine last time she checked. In fact, she predicted that by tomorrow afternoon the bird should be back on her taloned feet and raising havoc like usual. Mostly that was due to the fact that she had only experienced the pain of the sealing jutsu Hokage-sama had used second hand through the link she shared with Wannabe. Since she wasn't the primary recipient, she was logically going to bounce back sooner than her master would. However, if the medical-nins were concerned enough to ask for her personally, then it must be something above average occurring.

"Fine. I'll go see how the bird is doing." She said as she began to casually trot towards the entrance/exit to the room.

Hopefully it wasn't anything too serious since it would leave Wannabe without a valuable tool for the next Phase of the Exam.

&

_**One Day Later, The Infirmery, Anko's P.O.V**_

"Uhhhh….anyone…get the…n-name of the…bus that hit me?" came a weak but strengthening voice from the bed.

"Yeah. You got hit head on by the Hokage Express, kid." Anko said as she looked up from the magazine she'd been reading, "Fortunately you're made of pretty tough stuff so you should be alright."

"Good, 'cause I'd hate to… miss the next Phase of the Exam." Xander said as he turned his head in her direction with some effort.

When he tried to sit up, though, it was clear that while he had recovered enough strength to wake up, moving about would take a little while longer. His arms trembled and sweat was beginning to form on his face from the strain of just **trying** to sit up. Quickly moving forward she helped him sit up the rest of the way and positioned the pillows so that he'd still be comfortable.

"Easy there, Xander-kun. Hokage-sama said it'd probably take every minute up until the end of the Second Phase for you to be back in fighting form again." She said, recalling what the Third had told her, "So take it easy until the medical-nins give you a clean bill of health."

"'kay." He said as he gradually recovered from the exertion of sitting up.

"Now that you're awake, I need to ask you how much you remember about what Hokage-sama prior to checking out." She said, wanting to make sure he remembered the key elements of the seal that kept Orochimaru's cursed seal in check, "Do you remember what Hokage-sama said about the three pillars that are the keys to the cursed seal being locked away?"

"Yeah. Chakra, mind and Spirit. If two of the three pillars get too weak then the blasted thing stands a good chance of activating when I mold chakra." Xander said with a resolve in his voice that let her known he had no intention of forgetting this rule.

"Good. It might make things a little harder for you to fight but I think you're smart enough to be able to win without using up all your chakra or losing your cool." She said feeling confident that Xander wouldn't do anything to risk loosing the cursed seal.

"Any news about the other Genin teams? Who's shown up so far?" Xander asked, moving along from the uncomfortable topic of his **condition**.

"So far only Team Kurenai and the team from the hidden village of Sand have shown up." She replied recalling what she'd heard walking around the Tower, "However, seeing as how the last day is tomorrow, I figure that today is the day when most of the qualifying teams will show up. No telling how many teams will qualify, though."

She watched as he took in this information and knew that he was running through the odds if he was selected to fight a member from Team Kurenai or Team Sand. Of the three of her students, Xander was probably the most strategically smart of the group and that made her glad she'd made him field team leader. Hana was too aggressive in her fighting style to really think things through before diving into a fight and Ayeka wasn't aggressive enough, even though she took the time to choose her targets. The American Uchiha was a more even mix of the two and, with the powers he possessed through Sharingan, the odds of his plans working were better than your average ninjas. He wasn't perfect, though, and a few of his plans had holes in them, but that was mostly because of his lack of experience rather than absent ability. With a little time and some experience from future missions, those holes would close up and he'd be able to plan for success from start to finish.

"What about Ayeka and Hana? They okay?"

"Yeah, they're fine. You're the only one that needed medical treatment after arriving here." She said with a small grin at the Uchiha's concern for those under his command, "But there was a little ruckus when Ayeka decided to administer you a **special** treatment of her own."

"What… did she…do?" Xander asked looking like he'd either pass out or groan in disbelief depending on her reply.

"Well, apparently she thought that sharing her body heat with you would speed up the healing process, so she got into bed with you spooning you from behind." She replied with a grin of amusement at the expression on her student's face, "It was about six hours before Hana found you two curled up together. Needless to say, flower girl wasn't happy with what she saw."

"Yeah, well, I'm not too crazy about it either!" Xander said covering his face with one hand while shaking the head in disbelief, "Man! Even when I'm unconscious she doesn't leave me alone!"

"For as long as I've known the girl, she's never let anything get in the way of something she wants." She said recalling the Mishima girl's past efforts to get into a noble family, "Personally I think you should at least go on a date with her or something. It'll be less stressful than trying to evade everything she sends at you."

"Somehow I doubt that there's anything about that girl that **isn't** stressful." Xander said, clearly not convinced of the wisdom of reaching a compromise with Ayeka, "Besides, I make it a rule of mine never to date girls who look at me like a delicious piece of meat. Mostly because, sooner or later, they'll want to eat and I don't feel much like being anyone's turkey sandwich."

"Hahahahaha! You're probably right but I don't think you'll have much choice in the matter if Ayeka has anything to say about it." She said with a laugh at the young man's statement, "Still, I suppose if you keep the chase going long enough she might mellow out a bit with the seduction schemes."

"God I hope so! Don't get me wrong though, she's definitely good looking, but I just don't see me and her working out if all she's after is the title of Ms. Uchiha." Xander said honestly as he tried to put the images of a pursuing Ayeka out of his mind, "I prefer girlfriends who like me for who I am not what I can do for them."

"Makes sense." She said before a growl came from the Uchiha's stomach, "Heheheheh, hungry?"

"Yeah. Don't suppose Ichiraku delivers?" Xander asked with a bit of desire in his eyes.

"Tell you what. Since you're the field commander for the team, I'll go grab you some to go just this once." She said as she got to her feet, "Just don't think I'll be making a habit of this."

"Of course not! It'd be downright shameful for a Jounin to be reduced to a delivery girl." Xander said with a lopsided smile of humor that caused her to smile as well.

"Got that right, **brat**!"Anko said with her own unique smile before leaving the room.

While she might make a food run for Uchiha Xander in the future, it'd only be when **she** felt like rather than whenever he got hungry. After all, she had a reputation as something of a wild girl to maintain and being seen running errands too often would ruin that pretty quickly.

That was **not** going to happen anytime soon.

&

_**One Day Later, Infirmery, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Note to self: getting a seal jutsu used on you hurts like __**HELL!**_ Xander thought to himself as he got himself dressed in his usual fighting clothes.

It might have been three days since the fuijin jutsu had been placed on the seal Orochimaru put on the back of his neck but his body was still sore in places. Not that it would keep him from completing the rest of the Chuunin Selection Exam, but he'd definitely have to focus a bit more to ignore the soreness. No doubt the soreness would flare up if he put stress on the wrong muscles at the wrong time and, if he didn't prepare himself, they'd distract him at a crucial point in the future. Strapping his shuriken holster into place, he knew it'd probably be a good thing to get to the Tournament Hall. It was only a couple of minutes before the Second Phase of the Exam was schedule to come to and end as the last of the qualifying teams showed up. He already knew about Hinata-hime's team qualifying as well as the Sand ninjas, but Team Gai had also apparently arrived. Not exactly welcome news, considering that Ahou-sama was there with them, but thankfully he had spent enough time improving his taijutsu with Lee and Gai that he had a good grasp of their fighting style. Both were heavy taijutsu users, even though Gai had the ability to use some genjutsu and ninjutsu, unlike his student Lee, who couldn't do anything but taijutsu. If he had to fight Lee, he'd have to make sure to keep it a long range battle since getting in close to the Bruce Lee wannabe would be a **big** mistake. Tenten, he knew, was a long range expert with amazing accuracy that was said to be even higher than Ayeka. However it was entirely centered around shuriken and material weapons rather than a combination of projectiles and jutsus. If he could come up with a plan to neutralize metallic weaponry, then he'd have a match against her won.

_Against Ahou-sama, though, I'll need a huge advantage to win!_ He thought as he recalled everything he knew about the Hyuuga clan and his last fight with Neji.

The two biggest problems when fighting someone from the Hyuuga clan was their near three hundred and sixty degree field of vision with Byakugan and the fighting style, Juuken, that went with it. The first made sneaking up on one of them impossible since they could see in all directions at once and the latter made close range combat forbidden. All it took with Juuken was one partial hit to seriously damage a ninja's circulatory system and a direct hit would make a mess of the internal organs. While it pissed him off to no end, he knew he wasn't good enough yet to beat a Hyuuga in battle and that meant his preference for any future confrontations would have to be a non-Hyuuga. He'd like nothing better than to kick that arrogant ass around before finishing him off but he wasn't stupid enough to take on an enemy he was at a serious disadvantage against. He'd had that lesson pounded into him after fighting Orochimaru and getting completely schooled in the process. Not that Neji was anywhere near Snake Face's level but Ahou-sama was far enough above him that he'd be facing some pretty stiff odds fighting him.

"C'mon, Ava! Time to see what new **surprises** those sadists they call examiners have in store for us." He said to the bird that had been waiting patiently for him at the end of the bed.

With a single cry from her beak, she briefly took to the air before landing on his shoulder with a single ruffling of the wings before letting them settle. With that done, the two of them left the infirmary and headed for the Tournament Hall, where they'd hook up with the rest of Team Anko. While he'd found out that the two girls had started reverting to their usual bickering M.O while he was out, it hadn't gotten too bad. While he attributed it to Hana and Ayeka finally growing up a bit Anko believed it was due to the influence he had on the two of them. Personally he didn't think either young lady cared enough about what he thought to affect their behavior **that** much. Hana questioned him every chance she got and Ayeka only behaved herself when he was actually around. As long as he wasn't there to see her snark with Hana, the two of them would go at it like cats and dogs. Fortunately that was over with now that he wasn't stuck to that bed anymore the havoc the two of them would cause would be reduced significantly.

At least he hoped it would.

After all, as team leader, he would be held responsible for anything they did right alongside Anko.

Walking down the halls, he could see the other ninja running about making the final preparations for the next Phase. It couldn't be very much since, according to the clock that had been on the wall of infirmary, there had been less than three minutes before the Second Phase was due to end. He only had Hana's hunch about what the Third Phase would be like but, based on what she'd told him about the Tournament Hall, it was quite possible. They'd been tested on their intellect and their teamwork abilities so it was only natural that the next Phase would focus on their individual abilities. Still, it was only a guess on his part and, for all they knew, it could be completely wrong, but he had a feeling it wasn't. As for what preparations they could be taking part in, he didn't have a clue but he figured it was probably just the last minute odds and ends.

Entering the Tournament Hall, he could see that the others had already gathered ahead of him and were all lined up by team, one teammate behind the other. Seeing where his teammates were, he moved to get into position in the front since that was where the leaders of each team were supposed to go. Looking over to see if there were any new arrivals, he was happy to see that his cousin Sasuke's team had made it through the Second Phase and was only looking a little beat up. He was glad that his cousin's team had made it since it meant he'd be able to see the younger Uchiha in action and he'd be able to show Sasuke how good he was as well. In all the time since he'd arrived in Konoha, he hadn't been able to have a decent enough talk with Sasuke about their family and their connection to one another as cousins. It wasn't for lack of trying, though, but rather because of the demanding schedule that Anko had put together to get her team of Genin up to snuff for the Chuunin Exam. He truly wanted to form some kind of connection with the only other member of the Uchiha Clan that he cared to get to know but something always kept getting in the way. Hopefully he'd get a chance either during the next Phase of the Exam or after the Chuunin Exam concluded.

"First off, congratulations on passing the Second Phase of the Chuunin Exam," Said Ebisu in his usual pompous way. "We will now have an explanation of the Third Phase of the Chuunin Selection Exam from Hokage-sama. Everyone listen well!"

With those words, the elderly Third Hokage walked forward to the edge of the raised platform and, with a slight cough caused most likely by his pipe smoking, he began to speak.

"The Third Exam will begin. But before the explanation, there's one thing I want to make clear to all of you." Hokage-sama said in a tone that required any decent person to pay attention, "It's about the true purpose of this exam. In other words, why we do a joint exam with the allied nations of this region of the world. 'To maintain good relations with the allied nations' and 'heighten the level of the ninja' were the reasons you have probably heard but do not let them deceive you. The 'exam', so to speak, is…"

The old man was obviously a lover of theatre as he took a moment to puff on his pipe a moment in order to build up the suspense a bit.

"…The epitome of a war between the allied nations." Third finished, leaving no mistake in his voice.

"What do you mean?" Tenten asked from her position behind Rock Lee.

"If we go back through history, the allied nations right now were neighboring countries that have fought each other over and over again. To avoid wasting military power, those countries decided to choose a place to fight." Hokage-sama replied as he explained his earlier statement, "That is the beginning of the Chuunin Selection Exam."

_Makes sense. Wars are pretty much a waste of resources and lives one way or the other. If these Exams can be used as a way of avoiding war, then it's definitely something the leaders of those nations would approve of._ He thought as he considered the benefits to having the Exam take place.

"Why do we have to do that?" Naruto asked, sounding like he didn't understand anything beyond the surface meaning of what the Third had said, "We're not doing this to select Chuunins?"

While he didn't think the blonde trickster Genin was stupid, it was clear that deep thinking was not one of the kid's strong points.

"Yes, this Exam does examine those who are worthy of the Chuunin title. But, on the other hand, it's also a place where ninja fight and carry their country's dignity." Replied the Third Hokage without a trace of disappointment at Naruto's inability to grasp the truth of the situation, "In this Third Exam, feudal lords and famous people from various countries who may be potential clients are invited here as guests. And feudal lords from countries with hidden villages and ninja leaders will see your battles. If there's a significant difference in power, the strong country will be flooded with jobs. If a country is seen as weak, their jobs will decrease. And at the same time, countries are able to show how their village has grown and possess excellent military power to the adjacent countries. In other words, they can put foreign pressure on them."

The more he heard about the nature of the Chuunin Selection Exam, the more he was convinced that it was a pretty smart way of keeping the peace between the various countries in this region. Not only did it do things like point out those ready to become Chuunin but it also helped each country drum up business while at the same time letting each country get an idea of how strong or how weak the others have become. It was a near perfect system for taking all the benefits of war without having to live with the consequences of warfare. Whoever thought this thing up was definitely a smart ninja and a good negotiator if he/she managed to convince the other countries to go along with it.

"So why do we have to fight with the risk of losing our lives?" Kiba asked, sounding like he didn't approve of being used in this manner.

"A country's power is the village's power. A village's power is the ninja's power." Hokage-sama replied promptly, "And a ninja's true power is only born in life-or-death battle. This Exam is also a place to show off the ninja power of one's country. Since this is an exam where you fight with your life on the line, it has a meaning and your predecessors have fought and dreamed of being in the Chuunin Exam because of it."

"But why do you say it is to promote good relations?" Tenten asked, clearly a bit uneasy about not being told all this beforehand.

"I told you at the beginning to not get it confused with that. The custom of saving one's life and fighting to maintain balance… that is the good relation in the world of the ninja." Hokage-sama said, sounding a bit irritated that one Konoha ninja was still thinking what they'd been told earlier was important, "This is a life-or-death battle for your dream and the village's dignity."

A silence fell over the room as the gathered Genin soaked in what the Third Hokage of Konoha had just told them.

"I understand now." Naruto said sounding like the meaning behind what had been explained was quite simple.

The odds of anyone in the room believing that the orange-clad ninja actually understood everything were slim **indeed**.

"I don't care." Said the gourd carrying Sand ninja with impatience, "Tell us the details of this life-or-death exam."

"Then I will now begin the explanation of the Third Exam, but…" The Third said but before he could go further one of the ninja who had been standing behind him appeared kneeling before him.

"Excuse me, Hokage-sama." Said the long haired ninja who wore his forehead protector like a bandana, "I, Gekkou Hayate, the judge, will explain."

"Please do." Hokage-sama said, not sounding bothered in the least at being interrupted.

"Everyone, it's nice to meet you." Hayate said stoically before having a slight coughing fit and turning halfway to look at them, "Everyone, before the Third Phase of the Exam, **cough-cough** there's something I want you to do. Fight in some preliminary matches to see who gets to advance to the Third Phase's main fights."

_Preliminary matches?_ He thought and from what he could hear that was pretty much the same reaction all the other Genins were having.

"Preliminary matches? What do you mean?" Asked the unmotivatable ninja Nara Shikamaru, sounding like he was something other than annoyed like usual.

"Sensei, I don't understand what you mean by preliminary matches." Sakura said in a more respectful manner than the guy from Team Asuma, "Why can't we just start the Third Phase of the Exam with the remaining examinees?"

"In this case, it must have been because the First and Second Phases of the Exam were too easy, I don't know…" Hayate replied with a sigh as he spoke, "But there are too many examinees left. According to Chuunin Exam regulations, we must decrease the number of participants before we can proceed with the main matches of the Third Phase of the Exam. As previously mentioned by Hokage-sama, there are many guests for the Third Phase of the Exam, so we cannot just have a lot of matches."

_Yeah. Too many matches would probably just make things blurry for all those filthy rich feudal lords._ Xander thought as he didn't think very highly of the attention spans of the financial elite.

"We are limited on time as well. So those that aren't feeling well…" Hayate said before getting stuck in a coughing fit for a few seconds, "Excuse me. If anyone wants to quit after hearing the explanation, please let me know. The preliminary matches will begin immediately."

This was not met with much approval from those teams who had only arrived today or yesterday, since they were still in the process of recovering from the exertion of making it to the Tower. He himself wouldn't mind having a few more days to recover from the sealing jutsu used on him by the Third Hokage but he wasn't going to make a big scene over it.

"I forgot to mention this, but you will have one-on-one matches from here on out." Hayate said, sounding a little embarrassed at forgetting such an important fact, "So please withdraw if you wish."

Looking out of the corner of his eye to see if anyone was about to raise their hand and bow out of the next Phase of the Exam, he was immediately concerned as he watched his cousin wince and then grasp his shoulder tightly. Was he injured? There wasn't any blood that he could see nor did the left arm look like it was broken or attached to anything that might be broken. Could it be some kind of muscle strain or ligament damage? Those were the reasons he wanted to believe in because the part of him that housed the Harris Luck Detector was whispering to him that perhaps Sasuke had gotten a little gift from Orochimaru as well. If that was the case, if the younger Uchiha did have a mark branded into the back of his neck by the chalk-faced **bastard**, then he was here with a serious handicap. Unlike himself, Sasuke hadn't had a seal put on Snake Face's little gift and that meant that every time the revenge-minded Uchiha tried to mold chakra the cursed seal would leave its dormant state. Personally, he'd like to insist that if his cousin did indeed have a cursed seal on the back of his neck that he be pulled out of the exam until a fuijin jutsu could be placed on it. However, he suspected that like most revenge-obsessed lone wolves Sasuke would be completely against that be pissed at anyone who tried to force the issue.

_So long as he doesn't start using excessive amounts of hair gel and changes his wardrobe to black leather, I'll leave him be._ He thought not liking one bit the mental image of his cousin turning into another Deadboy.

He knew how stubborn Sasuke probably was because he was stubborn himself about some things. There were some things he refused to relinquish, some things he refused to do and some things that not even God himself had the power to keep him from doing. If his cousin was anything like that, then the most he could hope to achieve was to try and keep the young Uchiha from doing anything reckless or dangerous.

It looked like Sakura noticed this as well and was quietly trying to convince her teammate to withdraw from the Chuunin Exam. However, if the angry look on Sasuke's face was any indication, he was not going to go along with such a course of action. Sakura was a caring young woman who cared about Sasuke a great deal, with quite a bit of it not having anything to do with her status as a Sasuke fangirl. It even looked as though she was about to raise her hand to bring her teammate's condition to the attention of the Hokage and the Jounins on the raised platform. However someone else among the assembled Genins beat her to the punch.

"I'll quit." Kabuto said with a friendly smile on his face.

This caused a bit of a whisper-fest among the other examinees since the glasses-wearing Konoha Genin didn't seem to be all that banged up. Aside from a band aid on the bridge of his nosem the guy looked to be completely unharmed and that made his decision to quit the Exam all the more puzzling.

"Let's see…You are Konoha's Yakushi Kabuto-kun?" Hayate asked as he looked through the clipboard of info he had in his hand, "You may leave, then."

"Kabuto-san, why are you quitting?!" Naruto asked, clearly showing that he had been looking forward to moving into the next Phase with the older Konoha ninja, "Why?!"

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, but my body is completely worn out already." Kabuto replied from his place on the edge of the assembled Genin, "I doubt I'll be able to put up much of a fight in the next Phase, so I'd rather not embarrass myself by continuing."

After saying a few hushed things with his teammate, words that were definitely not friendly even though he couldn't make them out clearly, Kabuto exited the room with only a single wave at Naruto. With a cough, it sounded like Hayate was about to resume his work as judge for this Phase of the Chuunin Exam.

"May I assume that there are no more people who wish to withdraw?" Examiner Gekkou asked letting his eyes pass over the remaining Genin.

This led to Sakura once again trying to raise her hand to draw attention to Sasuke's cursed seal but her efforts were stopped more forcefully this time as Sasuke clamped down hard on the hand she was intending to use. Xander felt some sympathy for her and could see from the tears that were forming in her eyes that she couldn't understand why her friend and potential boyfriend was being so stubborn. In her mind, she probably thought that nothing was worth risking ones life over, especially if you had a debilitating affliction like the cursed seal. In her mind, she probably saw Sasuke's life as being more important than anything else but, for his cousin, revenge was more important than his life. All that mattered to the younger Uchiha was killing the brother than decimated his clan and ruined his life. He could understand that even though he believed that revenge was ultimately a hollow pursuit that would end up destroying a person in the end.

"Then, let's begin the preliminary matches." Hayate said, clearly ignoring the conflict occurring in Team Kakashi, "It will be a one-on-one match. In other words, it will be like real combat. Now that we have exactly twenty people, we will have ten matches and the winners will be able to advance to the main part of the Third Phase of the Chuunin Exam. There are no rules. You will fight until the other person dies, is knocked out or admits defeat. If you don't want to die, please give up immediately."

_Ya gotta love how __**polite**__ he is when he says that._ He thought restraining the urge to roll his eyes.

"However, if I judge that the match is over…**cough**…I may stop you to prevent any unnecessary deaths." Hayate said, making everyone wonder why the guy wasn't in a hospital, "The thing that will determine the match ups will be this."

As the Examiner spoke those words, one of the panels on the scoreboard that was built into the wall was pulled up to reveal an electronic bulletin board.

"This electronic bulletin board will randomly display the names of the two fighters for each match." Hayate said in his usual stoic manner, "Without further delay, I will now display the names for the first match."

Looking up at the bulletin board, he watched as the names, written in Japanese, went by at a rapid pace and wondered if it would be his name that appeared. It was soon revealed that Fate had a different Uchiha in mind when it determined the match up for the first battle.

Akadou Yoroi VS Uchiha Sasuke.

"Those whose names were displayed, step up." Hayate said with his hands behind his back, "The first match's fighters are Akadou Yoroi and Uchiha Sasuke. Are there any objections?"

Neither fighter stated that he had an issue with the match up.

"We will now begin the first match." Hayate said before coughing a bit, "Everyone other than the two fighters, please move up there."

With his left arm the man indicated the balconies that existed on either side of the room about fifteen to twenty feet off the ground.

Without further delay, all the Genin as well as the Chuunin and Jounin present began to go to one of the balconies in question with those from Konoha noticeably sticking closer to the people they knew. The balcony on the right side of the room soon held Team Anko, Team Kurenai, Team Asuma, Team Gai and the two non-participating members of Team Kakashi. The balcony on the left side of the room had only the Sand ninjas but from the looks on their faces Fan Girl, Pajama Boy and that creepy Gaara didn't mind having it all to themselves.

Taking his place on the balcony with his team, Xander was glad that the remaining members from Team Kakashi were between him and Gai's team. While he had no real problems with Lee, Tenten or Gai himself, he didn't trust himself to be in close proximity to Ahou-sama and not snark at the prick. Letting Ava hop down from his shoulder and attach herself to the railing of the balcony, he looked down at the two combatants intent on catching every second of what was about to happen.

&

Note: Instead of giving you all a blow-by-blow accounting of the following matches I will instead simply be giving you Xander's thoughts on each fight. I might go into a little more detail for the fights involving the Xan-man, Ayeka and Hana for obvious reasons but otherwise things will be kept brief. After all, if you've made it this far in the fanfic, I'd hope that you've watched a few of the Anime episodes yourselves and thus have seen for yourself how things happened.

&

_**Match One, Akadou Yoroi VS Uchiha Sasuke**_

From the very beginning he could tell that the cursed seal was causing Sasuke trouble and the first example of this was when a simple matter of deflecting a volley of shuriken caused his cousin to fall to the floor like a clumsy person. This allowed Veil Guy to pull a fast one and get in close to try to put his fist through the younger Uchiha but his cousin was too swift for that and quickly got the guy into a submission technique. With a firm grip on Yoroi's arm and in a good position to either dislocate it or break it, the teammate of Kabuto was in a tight spot. However then something happened to loosen Sasuke's grip on his opponent, allowing the man to raise his arm before delivering a potent blow to the revenge driven young man's torso.

The man with the obscured face quickly got to his feet and leapt a tile or two away from his prey but fear was definitely not the motivator. This was proven true a few moments later when his cousin sat up the guy charged in and immediately clamped down on Sasuke's head with his right hand. The sole survivor of a tragic massacre cried out in pain at this but there was no visible reason that he could see for this to be happening. Deciding to take a more thorough look at things, he activated his Sharingan and was immediately informed as to what was going on. Thanks to the ability, his eyes now had to see chakra he now knew that Yoroi was using a jutsu that allowed him to suck the chakra out of his opponents. If that was the case, then close range combat would be perilous and better off avoided unless one completely outclassed their opponent in this area. He could see his cousin doing his best to resist but with chakra being drawn out of his body at a quick pace, strength was rapidly becoming a scarce commodity.

"What's going on, Wannabe?" Hana asked having noticed that her Uchiha teammate had activated his Sharingan.

"Yoroi apparently knows a jutsu that can drain an enemy's chakra." He whispered back, not seeing why he should inform everyone else along with his teammate, "It's giving my cousin a tough time."

"No kidding," Stated the Inuzuka girl before she returned her gaze to the fight with greater focus on her face.

Understandable, since the feral young woman's fighting style specialized in attacking an enemy with a bestial form of taijutsu.

Yoroi's jutsu was definitely potent but, even with his eyes showing him how the chakra was flowing, he couldn't really figure out what seals were involved or how he could do it himself. Most likely that meant that the technique was genetic and only someone of Yoroi's bloodline could use it. Pity.

Fortunately for the honor of the Uchiha clan, Sasuke was eventually able to kick his opponent away but this was merely delaying the inevitable. Unless Sasuke could find some way to nullify the problems his cursed seal was causing **and** compensate for his adversary's jutsu, his defeat was inevitable. The fight continued but it was obvious to the spectators that Sasuke was trying to avoid his opponent's right hand as best he could. However, as a grazing touch to the hair proved the jutsu used by Kabuto's buddy only needed a little physical contact in order to do its job. This was not impressing the other people watching the match but, thankfully, only Naruto was making his displeasure known vocally. However, it was when his cousin looked up at the balcony that something seemed to change in the youngest Uchiha's presence. Gone was the young man looking frantically for a way to defeat his foe and instead there stood a ninja who had just found the key to his victory.

Yoroi chose that moment to take advantage of his foe's inattention and dove in for a series of attacks that were efficiently dodged. However it didn't last for long because, with a burst of speed that would have rendered Sasuke invisible to normal eyes, his cousin got past the veiled man's guard and delivered a powerful upwards kick to the idiot's jaw. From there, the number one rookie of his class immediately performed the Kage Buyō technique to place himself below and behind his still airborne foe. However, just when it seemed that Sasuke was about to lay a hurting on the man, the Uchiha's body went rigid and something seemed to be happening in proximity to the neck area. It was only with his Sharingan and his current position that he was able to see a fiery orange something begin to flow across his relative's face. He didn't even need to think to realize that it had to be the cursed seal.

_Fight it! Fight it Sasuke!_ He thought towards the boy whom he was connected to by blood.

Fortunately it seemed that either his cousin's pride or his stubbornness proved to be useful this once because, mere seconds after it looked like the cursed seal was about to seize control, it swiftly withdrew. A smile blossomed across his face as he felt pride at the fact that his relative had managed to beat Orochimaru's gift. He was also smiling because he knew that a major ass whupping was about to happen that he definitely wanted to capture with his Sharingan. With a combo that sent his opponent faster and faster towards the floor he watched as with final blow in the form of an axe kick to the stomach Sasuke put an end to the fight. However, based on the less than graceful landing and the effort needed to get back to his feet, Sasuke probably needed to work the kinks out of that new combo of his before he did it again.

It only took a minute for the Examiner to check Yoroi's vitals but, personally, he didn't think there was a need to do so.

This match was over.

"I will end this match now. The first match winner is Uchiha Sasuke." Hayate declared as he stood up from checking on the loser's condition, "That means he passes the preliminary round."

This was followed by cheers from the Konoha ninja but most vocally from Sasuke's own teammates with Naruto naturally being the loudest. However, this was a brief thing since it was clear that his cousin was completely wiped from his fight. Fortunately Kakashi was considerate enough to keep the focused Uchiha from falling on his back. However it was somewhat puzzling when, instead of being taken by the medical-nins, Kakashi escorted the fatigued young man away from the healer and out the door. While he'd definitely be asking the man why he did that later, he trusted the copy ninja to look out for his Genin student.

Besides the next match was about to begin.

&

_**Mishima Ayeka VS Aburame Shino**_

_**Ayeka's P.O.V**_

_Of all the people I had to be paired against, __**why**__ did it have to be __**HIM!**_ Ayeka thought as she looked at the electric bulletin board in shock.

She would have gladly taken any other opponent on, even that creepy Sand ninja with the gourd, but **no,** she had to get stuck with a ninja that used **them** to fight. Nevertheless, she had no choice because if she dropped out now, not only would she fail the exam but she'd also humiliate herself in front of Xander-sama. While she cared more about the latter than the former, she knew that there was only one thing she could do at the moment. She had to steel herself, keep Xander-sama's favor at the front of her mind, and do her best to win this match so she could move onto the main matches of the Third Phase. She was about to leave for the stairs leading down to the floor when a hand clamped down on her shoulder causing her to turn around with a gasp.

It was Xander-sama.

"Just stay focused on the tactics part and you'll be fine." Xander-sama said to her with an encouraging smile on his face, "Keep things long distance. I know you can do this Ayeka!"

He **believed** in her!

There was not a trace of doubt in his eyes about her chances of winning this!

Those two facts alone were enough to give her strength and so, with an increased reservoir of confidence, she strode down to the floor. A minute or two later, she came face to face with the heir to the Aburame clan and, while being this close to **them** made her confidence waver a bit, she grabbed ahold of her courage with all her might. She **would** do this! She would not disgrace herself in front of the man she intended to give her heart to when the time was right! She'd just make sure to finish him off before Shino had a chance to bring **them** to bear. With that in mind, she moved her hand closer to where she kept the second of her trump card decks and prepared her body to deliver her trump card immediately. As soon as the Examiner officially started the match, she'd throw everything she had at Shino and then it'd be over with her as the victor. Then Xander-sama would praise her and she'd have taken a most beneficial step towards claiming his heart.

"Aburame Shino. Mishima Ayeka. This match will continue until one of you is dead, unconscious or surrenders." Hayate said looking between the two of them to make sure both were paying attention, "Do you understand this?"

"Hai!" She said quickly, just wanting to get the whole thing over with.

"Hai." Stated Shino with about as much emotion as a pet rock.

"Then we shall now begin the second match." Hayate said as he stepped backwards, "Fight!"

The second the Examiner's words were out of his mouth, she leapt into the air and pulled out her second trump card deck before throwing the cards as fast as she could at the heir to the Aburame clan. The second they were a third of the way there, she sent out a pulse of her own chakra, causing the items sealed into the cards to be released. Kunai, shuriken, senbon needles, explosive tags and various other things that were used as projectiles by ninja were released with every last one headed for Shino. Within a matter of seconds, all fifty-six cards were released and, as she landed back on the ground, she waited with baited breath to see if her plan had worked. Smoke, flames and debris filled the air making it impossible to see if her opponent had survived. While she knew that she'd probably get lectured or punished somehow for going all out on a fellow Konoha ninja, she hadn't had any other choice. If she'd allowed him to bring **them** out then she wouldn't have been able to move, much less put up a decent fight. Besides, the medical-nins were nearby and since Shino was the heir of his clan, then he had to be tough, right?

"What?! Where!?" She exclaimed when all that existed where Shino had been was empty air.

"You gave yourself away with the fear you allowed to show up in your eyes." Came a voice from the ceiling above, "That was how I knew you would be throwing everything you had at me. It made your assault easy to avoid."

She was about to respond to this when her ears began to hear a sound that froze her where she stood. It was a clicking sound that she heard only faintly when Team Anko was forced to camp outside and it was a sound she made sure was impossible to hear in her own room with many spray cans. Turning around, she saw her fears confirmed when she spotted a swarm of bugs skittering across the floor towards her like a living shadow. It was all she could do to keep her trembling to a minimum but even then she knew that those that knew her would be able to see something wrong with her. It infuriated her that she had this fear of bugs but nothing she had attempted in the past to remove this phobia had worked. Her mother had suggested seeing a professional therapist but she'd refused outright since, if word got out that she was going to see a shrink, her chances for marrying into a noble family would be ruined.

"Know that if you attack the kikai in an effort to keep them away, I will attack." Shino said in perfect monotone from his place on the ceiling, "If however, you attempt to direct your efforts to me, the kikai will swarm over you from behind. Surrendering is recommended."

Her first impulse was to fire back that nothing was going to make her surrender but she stayed silent since she doubted that she'd be able to say anything without her fear tainting it. Instead, she tried desperately to find some way out of her seemingly no win scenario but nothing impressive was coming to mind. As the kikai closed to a single foot away from her, her fear reached an all time high and she could not stop herself from saying the worst possible thing.

"I surrender!" She blurted out as fast as she could.

This stopped everything in its tracks since everyone was shocked to hear the words spoken.

"Are you sure you wish to surrender?" Asked the Examiner in order to make sure this wasn't a mistake.

For a moment she considered retracting her words but one look at the bug swarm cemented her decision into place.

"Hai!" She yelled out to make sure there was no doubt to be had.

"Very well. The winner of this second match is Aburame Shino." Hayate said pointing with his right hand to Shino.

With her head hung in shame, she walked back to where her teammates were waiting for her. She couldn't even bear to look higher than waist level because she knew that there would be disappointment and anger in their eyes. When she finally reached their side, she focused her attention down towards the Tournament Hall floor in the hopes that the next match would manage to distract her from her humiliating defeat. It was then that she received a surprise in the form of a man's arm wrapping around her shoulders in a half hug. Looking up, she could see it was Xander-sama and, much to her pleasant surprise, there wasn't a speck of disappointment or anger in his eyes. In those brown eyes were was only understanding, compassion and the conveying of the message that he did not think less of her. To this she could only smile gratefully and swear to herself that she would prove herself worthy of him for entirely different reasons than improving her social standing.

"Thank you, Xander-sama." She whispered before wiping a single tear of joy from her eye.

&

_**Misumi Tsurugi VS Kankuro**_

This match turned out to be pathetically short and almost not worth seeing except for the interesting technique he was able to pick up from Tsurugi. With his Sharingan, he was able to see precisely how the man had been able to separate his individual bones and then manipulate their movement with his chakra. Who knew what a little modification on that technique could lead to? While he was skeptical about its ability to allow someone to continue fighting even if some major bones were broken, he didn't dismiss the possibility entirely.

However, Kabuto's teammate fell victim to the old switcheroo since, after an accidently snapping of the fake Kankuro's neck, it was revealed that the one that appeared to be trapped was actually a puppet. Then, with a flurry of unraveling ribbon, the real Sand ninja showed himself as the one who had been carried out onto the floor by the fake. From there all it took was the application of sufficient pressure and Tsurugi was rendered unconscious from the pain of having his bones crushed. Like an arrogant ass, Kankuro strutted off the floor and up to where his teammates were waiting for him on the left side balcony. While he admitted that puppeteer jutsus were useful and quite deadly when employed correctly, they did not make the user invulnerable.

_Guess that idiot will have to relearn that lesson the hard way._ He thought as he waited for the next match up to be announced.

&

_**Haruno Sakura VS Yamanaka Ino**_

This fight proved to be a lot more entertaining if only because of the impressive control that both girls had over their chakra as well as how they used their techniques. It started off with your basic taijutsu and projectile attack but there was an underlying current that was keeping things from reaching their maximum potential.

Both girls were going easy on their opponent.

To a casual observer it might seem that the two were merely evenly matched but both his Sharingan and his own mind told him that neither female ninja was fighting as hard as they could.

"They're female ninja, after all," came the cocky voice of Ahou-sama. "Their physical combat skills are lower than normal."

"It's not because they are female." Tenten said promptly, not liking how her abilities were being put down just because she was female, "Those two are just soft against each other. Sex doesn't matter in battle."

"Definitely. Konoha's history is full of female ninja who could wipe the floor with most of the male ninja here." Xander said, deciding to put in his two cents, "Tsunade-hime, for example, could demolish an entire building with her strength and is considered a legend by the medical-nins. Training and determination are what determine who becomes a great ninja and who doesn't."

However, it was made clear with a single slap from Ino that the blonde wasn't fighting as hard as she could, nor treating her adversary with respect. From what he could tell, the two were friends right up until they started noticing boys and then their affection for Sasuke caused them to become rivals. Not that he knew any of the details but that is what he imagined must have happened based on how the two young ladies behaved. It was when Sakura realized that the past was keeping them from fighting honestly that things went downhill. Sharp words that even Cordy would have been proud of flew from the pink haired ninja's mouth. Naturally, this riled Ino up quite a bit but what really sealed the deal was when the Haruno girl took off her forehead protector from where it had been resting on the top of her head. The meaning behind this move was a mystery at first but, when Sakura then put the forehead protector on the way most ninjas did, wrapped around their foreheads, the meaning became clear. Ino picked up on this as well and mimicked her perfectly.

That was when things went full blast.

Both girls gave it everything they had and showed how effective even basic academy techniques could be if used by just the right person. This was proven when Sakura created two bunshin to charge Ino head on but then used her chaka to stomp the ground, causing dust to get kicked up. This was mimicked in appearance at least by her bunshin, making it increasingly difficult to pick out the real Sakura from the two fakes. That allowed Naruto's teammate (and potential future girlfriend, if he ever got his act together) to score a hit that knocked the blonde a full thirty yards. However, that was not the end of the match by far and even with things being even more intense than before, the two were still pretty much even. Things eventually returned to snapping at one another and getting pissed, which reached its peak when Ino cut her hair almost as short as Sakura's was. Most thought that this was a sure sign that Ino had lost her cool and was acting rashly and those people seemed to be right when the Yamanaka got ready to use her signature move. If he recalled correctly, though, the mind transfer technique was primarily a spying technique and was unsuited for use in actual one-on-one combat. However the blonde proved she was cunning, making him wonder if the connection between hair color and intelligence was a crock, by faking the execution of the technique and then trapping Sakura with a thread of chakra channeled through the hair she'd thrown earlier.

With this in place, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Haruno was held in place, setting her up for the mind transfer jutsu. The technique was executed and his Sharingan let him know that the transfer of Ino's mind to Sakura's body had worked like a charm. It looked like that was all she wrote but then something happened that turned things around. Somehow Naruto's noisy nature managed to pierce through whatever control Ino had and awaken Sakura's fighting spirit, forcing Ino to abandon cranium post haste. From there the fight entered its final minutes since both girls were nearing complete exhaustion from how long and how intensely they had been fighting. In the end, it all came down to them punching each other on the face at the same time, resulting in the two flying back they came for several feet. When neither of them had the strength to continue fighting and this was confirmed by Hayate there was only one thing that could be announced.

"Both are unable to fight. Due to a double knockout, no one passes the fourth preliminary match." Hayate announced to the spectators.

_Still, both of them should be proud of what they managed to accomplish here._ He thought watching both Asuma and Kakashi go down to retrieving the sleeping beauties, _They both managed to get everything out in the open and show each other just how strong they'd become since graduating from the academy._

&

_**Tenten VS Temari**_

_This has got to be the most lopsided match so far._ He thought as he watched things get underway, _I already know who's going to win._

It wasn't that he didn't think Tenten had impressive skills or was a bad ninja, but rather that her opponent was an expert in jutsus that could neutralize projectile assaults. After all, he sincerely doubted that that huge ass fan Temari had strapped to her back was just for show, even though it was just a theory that that is what it was. That theory was proven correct when Tenten attempted a midair attack using dozens of weapons that had been sealed into a scroll she had. Before the projectiles even reached halfway, Temari pulled the metal tool tied to her back out and revealed it to be a fan before using it to blow the projectiles out of the air. The impressive part was that the fan was only partially unfurled, meaning it was using only a third of its full power. However, like most warrior women, Tenten wasn't about to be shown up just yet and used what was apparently her top move to try and overwhelm Temari. This took the form of two scrolls on either side to her that were released in the form of dragons made of smoke that shot up into the air alongside her when she leapt upwards, but it looked like this move was essentially just doubling the number of projectiles thrown rather than anything unique.

At least that had been his opinion at first.

However after the weapons were blown out of the sky by the female Sand ninja, the true trick was revealed when Tenten took to the air one more time. The only girl on Team Gai then revealed that there were many near invisible wires tied to each weapon on the floor and, with a movement, they were once again thrown at Temari. Sadly this had about as much effect as the other projectile attacks and, with the fan fully unfurled, the ranged attack specialist now had to face the full power of the tool. This full power took the form of a wind attack that swept up Tenten in a tornado of air that was imbued with chakra. This resulted not only in the girl being unable to escape but also to be cut on all sides by chakra blades made of wind. The cuts weren't deep from what he could tell with his Sharingan but the young woman was definitely taking a pounding in the whirlwind.

In the end, it was a descent from the air that was suddenly stopped by a folded up fan being put beneath the Konoha ninja that put an end to the match. It was a cruel and arrogant move that might've seriously hurt Tenten's back but the real example of cruelty happened next. With about as much regard as one would give a piece of trash being thrown over one's shoulder, Temari tossed Tenten off her fan. Had it not been for Lee catching his teammate, there was a high chance that the projectile girl would have been injured by her own weapons that still littered the floor. Lee furiously asked Temari why she was being so purposefully cruel but, judging from the blonde's response, she believed that anyone who fought so poorly deserved to be treated like trash. This pissed off the Bruce Lee wannabe and resulted in him trying to kick some manners into Temari but this assault was blocked easily with the fan. The confrontation was quickly broken up by the Jounin leaders of the team and both went back up to their respective balconies as the floor was cleared of the used weapons.

_Tenten was good but Temari was better._ He thought with a grim look as he watched Tenten be carried up to the balcony, _It was just a bad match up though. If it had been anyone else here Tenten would have beaten them._

&

_**Nara Shikamaru VS Inuzuka Hana**_

"C'mon, girls! Time to show Lazy Ass Jr. over there how it's done!" Hana said as she leapt over the railing to the floor below.

Walking over to where she knew the Examiner would want the two new combatants to stand, her ears perfectly picked up the sound of her three partners hitting the ground behind her, but that was to be expected. They been training together ever since she'd entered the academy and each knew what the other was thinking. With a confident grin on her face, she waited for the boy that might as well have had 'troublesome' made his legal middle name with how often he used it. While she might not have known the boy on a personal level, the Inuzuka family frequently did business with them for medicinal ingredients. Therefore she knew what the Nara family's trump card was and had already come up with a few different ways to counter it. Mentally running through what she knew was in her equipment pouch, she was glad to know that what she had would work. Still they were temporary counters that would vanish if she played with him too long so, despite how much she liked to prove her strength to her opponent, she'd make this match a quick one.

_Not that I'll expect much of a fight from someone fresh from the academy. _She thought as she looked at the kid who only a few months ago was an academy student, _Odds are the he'll rely on the Kagemane no Jutsu to snag me so as long as I keep that move from being execute properly he's all mine!_

"The sixth match shall now begin." Hayate declared to the ninja watching from the balconies, "Fight!"

Without hesitation, she pulled the first part of her strategy out from her equipment pouch and threw it at the Nara boy as quickly as she could. She could tell, right before she closed her eyes, that the boy had just identified her weapon but it was too little too late. With blinding like the flash tag she'd attached to the kunai exploded a little over two meters from Shikamaru's face, temporarily blinding him with its brilliance. As soon as she dared to, she opened her eyes and immediately performed the Shikyaku no Jutsu before lunging in to draw first blood in the match. With her increased speed, she closed the gap between her starting position and the Nara boy in seconds, allowing her to deliver a potent knee thrust to the boy's stomach. Like a fish out of water, the former academy student gasped to regain the air that had just been forced out of his lungs and fortunately the hard floor helped by jumpstarting the lungs. She allowed herself a grin at this first hit victory but she knew that it was only a matter of time before the boy got his act together and fought back. The effects of the flash tag were likely wearing off as she began to circle around to his rear why the girls came at their target from the front. Add to that the lungs that were coming back online and the son of Shikaku would become a threat again soon. While she did have another flash tag in her pouch, she doubted that even this lazy Genin would fall for the same move twice. Therefore it was time for something new and at the moment that was a two front assault from in front as well as behind.

_The girls will get his immediate attention since they'll be the first thing he sees when his eyes clear up. _She thought as she got closer and closer, _He'll undoubtedly use the Kagemane no Jutsu to freeze them in place and that's when I'll strike. The kid'll be so busy dealing with them he won't realize I've snuck up behind him until its too late!_

"Kagemane no Jutsu!" Shikamaru declared with his hands forming the rat seal in front of him.

Just like she predicted, his shadow separated into three parts snagging her girls instantly, stopping their approach cold. She had no intention of letting that last for very long, though, since the second her second attack landed, her partners would be freed from his technique. She was just about to leap into action when all of sudden her body was frozen in place, making it impossible for her to move a single inch. Her mind was a whirlwind of confusion as she tried to figure out what was going on but it soon hit upon the answer.

"Kagemane no Jutsu seikou!" Shikamaru said with pride as though everything had been **his** plan from the beginning.

"But **how** did you--?!" she asked as she tried to throw her strength against the technique and break free.

"How did I know you were going to try and attack me from behind like this?" Shikamaru asked rhetorically, completing the question she was going to ask, "I knew you wouldn't try the same move twice with that flash tag, so an attack from the rear with your dogs acting as decoys was the most obvious tactic."

She growled at the idea of her plan being called obvious and then pointed out the other thing she was upset about.

"How did you get me with that **blasted** technique of yours!?" She asked as she quickly came to realize that her strength was useless against this jutsu, "Your shadow never came near me!"

"Actually it did. Look down." Nara Shikamaru replied before looking down so that she could do the same.

It was then that she noticed that some of the cracks in the floor from Ayeka's signature move were darker than they should be.

"You mean!?" she exclaimed, unable to even complete the question due to her shock.

"Yep! I used the small shadows in the cracks caused by Ayeka's final attack to attach part of my shadow to you without you even realizing it." Shikamaru replied as the darkness in the cracks came alive and oozed out onto the floor to form a solid shadow, "And now for checkmate."

With those words, the Nara boy began to walk backwards while looking over his shoulder and this allowed her to see that she was being forced closer and closer to the wall. She wondered what he was planning. Was he planning to keep forcing her back until she couldn't go any further and then stab her with a kunai when he got close? This plan was thrown out the window when the boy, and by jutsu her as well, stopped, leaving her about two feet from the wall. Confused by this she was about to ask him what the hell he was planning but, sadly, she would take this lack of comprehension to la-la land seconds later. When she woke up, she'd be told by Anko that the moment she'd come to a stop near the wall, Shikamaru had leaned back quickly like a limbo star, forcing her to lean back as well. Unfortunately she didn't have the room that the Nara boy had and wound up slamming her head against the concrete wall, knocking herself out completely. To this she could only think one thing:

_I'll slit the throat of the __**first**__ person who pokes fun at me about this!!_

&

_**Uzumaki Naruto VS Inuzuka Kiba**_

Now this fight was a little slow starting due to the fact that Kiba had an advantage both in speed as well as in numbers. Xander knew firsthand how troublesome it was to fight an Inuzuka along with their partners but at least in Naruto's case he had it a bit easier since Akamaru was still a puppy. He could hear the others on the same balcony practically writing off the entire fight as a win for Kiba but he could tell that the present members of Team Kakashi and him had different ideas. He didn't know Naruto all that well, only having lunch with him just that once, but that was enough for him to see what kind of person the prankster was. He wasn't the kind of kid who gave up so easily or should be underestimated at all no matter what the circumstances might be. He was a kid after his own heart with the way he refused to be labeled and he always gave his all in everything he did. That was why he waited with complete certainty for Naruto to stand up after Kiba's first assault because, as far as he was concerned, it would take more than one blow to beat the noisy ninja.

From there it was pretty much a pattern of Kiba setting the bar for the loud member of Team Kakashi and Naruto coming up with a surprising move to get past it. First there was the soldier pill combined with the half-beast clone technique to turn his dog partner into a half animal copy of himself. He knew that Gatsūga was coming next since he'd already fought Hana and seen her fight often enough to get a feel for how the Inuzuka clan fought. This had Naruto jumping like a jack rabbit to try and avoid the combo while taking some nasty hits. However, like most ninja, given enough time, he was able to not only find a way to counter it but also remove it from the stage by tricking Kiba into knocking out his own partner, Akamaru. Once that was done, all Kiba could rely upon was Shikyaku no Jutsu. This worked for a little while with Naruto claiming the entire time that he had a jutsu saved away and was all pumped to bring it out to use on the Inuzuka boy. The brother of Hana, of course, did everything he could to make sure that Naruto wouldn't have time to form the seals never mind actually perform the technique and was doing pretty good for awhile.

However it was as he was charging towards Uzumaki's back that the jutsu was finally performed.

Although he seriously doubted any ninja could consider cutting the cheese, aka farting, to be a valid technique.

In the end, though, with the Shikyaku boosting Kiba's sense of smell, it was enough to nearly knock dog boy off his feet with how foul it smelled. From there was the clearest case of plagiarism he'd ever seen with Naruto using a modified version of Sasuke's Lion Combo to put Kiba down for good. He even **named** the thing after himself! Xander wasn't sure whether or not that was just the kid being his usual obnoxious self or if he was a little too confident. It didn't matter since the match was then declared over with Uzumaki Naruto as the winner to continue on to the main matches.

&

_**Hyuuga Hinata VS Hyuuga Neji**_

Now **this** was a match that had him pissed for no other reason than because Ahou-sama was in it. Unfortunately it only got worse as time went on, starting with Ahou-sama tearing into the young woman with hurtful words designed to obliterate her self-confidence and make her see herself as worthless. The guy was being a complete **ASSHOLE** even to his own family! He overheard from Lee how the Hyuuga was divided into the branch family and the head family. He also heard how there was something causing a great deal of bad blood to be formed between the two parts of the same clan and it looked like Neji was determined to bring that bad blood into the ring. However, that was when the guy started going on and on about how people were born with an unchangeable destiny, that it was impossible for someone to change, that a failure was a failure no matter what the person did to try to change themselves for the better. It pissed Xander off at how high and mighty the guy was sounding especially since if those words had been directed at him, it would have meant that since his mother was perceived as a traitor then he was as well. He knew that deep down it was at least partially psychological warfare but he was pretty sure that most of it was purely Ahou-sama being a complete bastard. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Naruto wasn't liking what was coming out of Lord Dumbass' mouth any more than he was.

"You can!" Naruto yelled out loud, obviously having heard enough about how people can't change themselves, "Don't label people just like that, you idiot! Beat him up, Hinata! Hinata! Why don't you say something back! It's making the people watching get angry!"

"Yeah Hinata-hime. Fate, Destiny and all of that is just an excuse used by the weak." He said, deciding to lend his support to the young lady who reminded him so much of pre-Buffy Willow, "The future isn't something that comes already laid out. It's what **you** make of it! Don't let anyone tell you different because they obviously don't know what they're talking about."

With those words said, words that clearly annoyed Ahou-sama because it interrupted his speechifying, Xander stood, looking down at Hinata, hoping the combo encouragement from him and Naruto had lit a fire in her soul. Seconds later the head lowered in fear rose up to reveal a look of determination and strength in the eyes of the young heir that he seriously doubted anyone had seen before today. It wasn't quite a blazing inferno but it was definitely a 'you picked the wrong girl to fight with' look and that was a decent way to start creating the new and improved Hyuuga Hinata. She threw down the metaphoric gauntlet, activated her Byakugan and settled into the position for Juuken, looking ready to fight with everything she had. With that the battle was on, both sides evading physical blows as best they could so that nothing connected but at the same time trying to execute attacks of their own. It was very high paced and left very little room for error since all it took to do damage was the slightest of physical contact between attacker and defender. From what he could see, Hinata wasn't doing too badly considering her usually timid personality but it was also clear that Neji had the advantage between the two of them. Ahou-sama was not lacking in self-confidence in the least and Hinata-hime was only just now beginning to gain a moderate amount to call her own.

The question was: was this enough to gain her victory?

The answer came during the next exchange when Hinata lunged in for what most likely would have been a devastating blow but Ahou-sama managed to use his own Byakugan to see the tenketsus in the Hyuuga heir's attacking arm and neutralized the chakra in it while at the same time landing a heavy blow of his own. The blood that was coughed out of the girl's mouth was **not** a good sign at all since it indicated internal damage. However the young lady wasn't discouraged and tried for another blow but this was neutralized by hitting the right tenketsu to render her blow useless. Also he heard from Kakashi explaining things to Naruto that the tenketsus were no bigger than a needle, so to be able to see them **and** hit them with the required accuracy was no small feat. It was also somewhat disappointing that Sharingan couldn't see them well enough for him to turn the dumbass' attack back at him. Still, his imagination did supply him with a way around that but he'd have to do some research to make certain.

Lord Idiot then knocked Hinata down and resumed his usual 'we all have an unchangeable fate and yours is to be defeated by me' speech. As much as he wanted to cheer her on again, it was just too obvious that while the young lady had found her inner fire it was too small to overcome Neji's confidence and experience. Maybe in a couple of months or so, after she has time to build on what she had, she might be able to beat him one-on-one but not now. Sadly, Hinata-hime had some of Naruto's stubbornness in her now and was refusing to give up so easily just because her tenketsus in her arms had been hit. However, he knew that it wasn't just a will to change herself that kept her fighting but also a desire not to look poorly in front of the person she admired and had a crush on. In this case, though, it would have been the wiser move for her to concede the match because without the ability to inflict damage of her own fighting would only wind up hurting her more.

"Hinata! Do your best!" Naruto yelled, apparently unwilling to admit that the person he currently hated had the match won.

Xander did his best to keep any look that might imply he didn't believe she could win off of his face for fear that it might undermine the progress she made so far. Not that he thought that his opinion held more weight with this Hyuuga princesss than, say, Naruto, but every little bit helped when building one's confidence. However, with a single palm thrust to the jaw that sent her flying backwards that caused her to degenerate into a coughing fit causing blood droplets to fall to the ground. Nevertheless, the stubborn girl continued to fight onwards, determined to fight until she could do so no more, and this earned her a devastating palm strike to her chest. Collapsing to the ground, he was pretty sure that even those who believed in her knew that this match would not end with her being victorious. She was too badly wounded at the moment if that blood she'd been coughing up was any hint and with her tenketsus hit she didn't possess the power to inflict damage on Neji.

It was time to call the match.

Too bad Naruto didn't agree since he did everything he could to give Hinata time to get up and resume the match.

"Don't stop the match!" Naruto yelled, making damn sure everyone in the entire room heard him.

He was about to try and pound some sense into the boy to make him realize that, unless he wanted Hinata to die, the match had to end when he noticed movement where .there shouldn't have been any. Looking back down to the floor, he watched in amazement along with everyone else as Hinata-him shakily pushed herself onto all fours. Then she actually made it to her feet but it was clear though that only a clever positioning of her knees so that they drew strength from one another, but that was the limit of how far she could go because, if she could barely stand up, then running, dodging and attacking would be impossible. Nevertheless, the girl spoke with her relative, refuting his claims of destiny and saying that it was **he** who was suffering the most, but this turned out to be a mistake. It drove Ahou-sama into a rage that was so completely unlike him that it surprised just about everyone. He charged Hinata-hime head on, no doubt intending to lay a hurting on him for daring to claim that **he** was suffering. Xander was about to disregard everything and jump down to stop the idiot but three of the Jounin teachers and the Examiner beat him to the punch. In a blur of motion that even his Sharingan couldn't clearly see, they stopped the dumbass in his tracks before he could successfully deliver a blow to the heir of the Hyuuga clan.

Naturally, the idiot started yelling about the head house of the Hyuuga clan getting preferential treatment from the Jounins.

Thankfully the fool only had the center stage for a few moments before Hinata grabbed everyone's attention once more. Once more she fell into a fit of coughs that brought her to her knees with how potent they were. Kurenai, Hinata's Jounin teacher, immediately went to her side to help and, out of the corner of his eye, he could see Lee, Naruto and Sakura leap from the balcony to the floor below. He was tempted to go as well but chose not to at the last moment. Those three were more than enough to give the girl what comfort was needed and any more would likely verge on smothering the poor girl. Instead he chose to fix an angry glare at the source of the problem and swear that if he and Ahou-sama met in the main matches of the Third Phase of the Exam, he'd teach the fool firsthand just how wrong he was about fate.

"Hey, the dropout is here." Ahou-sama said, obviously referring to Naruto since the kid's test scores were less than spectacular, "Let me warn you about two things. If you're a ninja, stop with that unsightly cheering for a stranger. And one more thing: A dropout is a dropout. They cannot change."

"Yeah, yeah, we've heard this before, Ahou-sama." Xander said, unable to keep his mouth shut one moment longer, "And like I said before: destiny and fate are nothing but excuses for those too weak to make their own futures. For you, though, the whole destiny bit is probably your little security blanket. It comforts you and lets you shy away from actually trying to do anything to change your future. So I guess you're not only a weak little boy but also a bully as well. You just defeated a girl who you knew couldn't match you and, instead of doing the honorable thing by ending it quickly and painlessly, you dragged it out just to hurt her more. Well done, Ahou-sama! Well done!"

To put the final nail in the coffin, he began to slowly and contemptuously clap, making it clear that he didn't respect Neji in the least, nor thought that the idiot deserved to be made a Chuunin. With words spoken and insulting action made, he stepped away from the railing for the time being. He would wait for his match to be announced and then he would show everyone, especially **Ahou-sama**, exactly what they could expect from him in a fight.

&

_**Gaara VS Rock Lee**_

It was a fight that no one expected.

That pretty much said it all right there.

While he didn't know a lot about Gaara, the kid definitely inspired new levels of wiggins in him and made that unidentified something inside of him excitable. He had felt the something from the moment he'd entered the room but had shoved off his awareness of this to side so he could focus on the matches. However, as time had gone on, the weird feeling that the something was giving off had grown and the cause was most likely Gaara getting more excited from the matches. That guy was definitely a fan of the blood and guts part of kicking ass and unless Lee did something drastic, he wasn't going to last long. He knew from his taijutsu training under Gai and Lee that the Bruce Lee wannabe was completely unable to perform even the most basic ninjutsu or genjutsu. According to Gai, it was a rare thing for someone to be born in a ninja village and not be able to do all three but there were the odd cases of it here and there. Still, what Lee could do with his taijutsu was enough to make mincemeat of the unprepared adversary.

When the match began, Lee went into his taijutsu arsenal and began to hammer Gaara with everything he had but every blow was blocked about a foot from the Sand ninja's body by a barrier of sand. No matter how hard or fast Lee attacked, every attack was stopped cold by the sand that surrounded Gaara, including projectiles. Gaara also proved that he could use the sand with great speed to grab ahold of his opponents and throw them around like rag dolls. It was turning out to be a match even worse than Hinata's since at least in that one she was on a more level playing field with Ahou-sama. Here, Lee's whole battle plan depended on his rapid taijutsu attacks and they weren't getting through thanks to the almost sentient sand barrier. Fortunately, Lee had an ace up his sleeve that had never been revealed during the training sessions.

He had been wearing weights on his legs the entire time.

Most people would think that only is training with weights on a little outdated but also that there was no way that taking off two leg weights would make much of a difference in his match. BOY would they be WRONG! Not only were the weights apparently equal to a wrecking ball in how heavy they were but they were dense enough to shatter the stone floor when they landed. From there, things were almost going too fast for him to see. Lee's speed had increased to near Flash levels as far as he could tell allowing him to move around as though he were nothing more than a blur. If it hadn't been for his Sharingan, he doubted that he'd be able to follow Lee as he danced around Gaara, hitting him from all sides with the blows landing mere seconds apart. In the end, this speed was enough to outmaneuver the sand barrier entirely, allowing the Bruce Lee wannabe to deliver a thunderous axe kick to the Sand ninja's head from mid-air. Following this up with a solid right hook a few moments later and Gaara was on the floor a couple of feet away. The damage, though, was revealed to be not quite as severe as one might have thought from two such devastating blows and the reason was that the Sand ninja kept a layer of sand pressed hard to his skin, disguised as normal skin. Apparently it acted like some sort of kinetic energy absorber that soaked up the energy from attacks received and minimized the damage done by quite a bit.

_Gonna take some real thinking to beat this guy if I have to fight him in the future._ He thought as he set a portion of his mind to work trying to figure a way to beat the Sand ninja.

Lee, on the other hand, charged the ninja once more and tried to kick Gaara into the air as a set up for another move but an unexpected problem arose. The Sand ninja wouldn't float! While Xander didn't know the science or perhaps metaphysics behind it, he knew that with enough kinetic energy transferred to another object, it could be made to float for a short time. However, for some reason, Gaara wasn't floating and this forced Lee to deliver a series of kicks to push his enemy higher and higher into the air so that the next move of the original plan could be executed. The second move was definitely something to see: first Lee wrapped his arm bandages around Gaara to immobilize him and then, after grabbing on, spun like a drill to drive the Sand ninja to the ground hard. Naturally, Lee bugged out before impact and the resulting damage to the floor was impressive. For a moment, everyone thought that the match was over and, considering the damage a move like that would have done to a normal person, that was understandable.

Some time during the initial setup for the combo, though, Gaara somehow managed to switch places with a sand bunshin. Add to that the fact that the move Lee used put tremendous strain on his body and it put the taijutsu user in a seriously bad place. With joints, muscles and ligaments that had to be hurting from performing the move, the job of evading Gaara's attacks became that much harder. Eventually it became clear that he couldn't dodge them at all and the Sand ninja was just playing with his prey. The sadist was also apparently more excited than ever because the something inside of him was making its feelings felt even more than before. So much so that Xander had to focus a bit more of his attention on keeping it from producing any tells on his face that the others might notice. He didn't know what Gaara was but he was stirring things up big time with whatever the something inside of him was.

Seeing Gaara ready to deliver another beat down, he was just as surprised as everyone else when somehow Lee's speed went right back up to where it had been before. Gaara's sand might as well have been sticky melting chocolate in terms of speed when compared to how quick Gai's protégé was moving. No matter how many times the Sand ninja tried to hit Lee, all the attacks hit was stone floor. It was then that he heard from a conversation that Kakashi was having with Gai that Lee had a second trump card in the wings called Primary Lotus. Apparently it was even more powerful than the technique that had shattered the floor earlier but also carried greater risk. The earlier move, called Secondary Lotus, made your body so sore that a users body felt completely maxed out. If Primary Lotus was stronger than Secondary Lotus, then, logically, the strain on the body was also going to be substantially greater. A grimace came over his face at how much worse the injuries could be than the strained muscles and sore joints produced by Secondary Lotus. He might not have known precisely but it was a safe bet that if this move failed to defeat Gaara, Lee would be a sitting duck for the counterattack.

_I just hope that someone is prepared to step in should things get dicey._ He thought as he watched Lee change his stance and cross his arms in front of himself.

It was then that he saw firsthand, with detail only Sharingan could provide, exactly what it meant to open two of the chakra gates that exist inside of the human body. It was definitely something to see as the sudden rise in chakra output caused loose bits of stone to rise up into the air as well as distort the air around Lee. Through his Sharingan, he could literally see the energy building up in the taijutsu kid and, when the arms were removed to reveal a veiny and red face, the point was most assuredly driven home: Lee was preparing to pull off one helluva move and it was definitely something he didn't want to miss. This was proven quite nicely when the level of chakra being pumped out by Lee's body leapt up a few notches, resulting in stone pieces the side of his head rising into the air. This was **beyond** impressive! Lee was pulling out all the stops and reaching a level of power that put him head and shoulders above the rest of the Genin.

His Sharingan almost lost sight of the kid but, thankfully, the shattering and upturned stone tiles at least let him focus on a specific direction. The battle was quickly becoming too much for his Sharingan to perceive at its current level, since the taijutsu specialist was now reduced to a barely defined blurred shape to his eyes. A kick from Lee sent Gaara skyward and managed to toss a lot of dust, gravel and stuff into the air along with the air it displaced. From there, once the creepy Sand ninja became visible again, it became a barrage of high powered and high velocity blows that actually created ripples in the air. He lost track of how many times Rock Lee knocked Gaara back and forth in mid-air but his eyes could tell that it was tearing the sandskin armor apart. It was not even a fight now since the Sand ninja couldn't even block the strikes, never mind counterattack, but as Lee's chakra was pushed even higher, he knew that the finisher was imminent.

He was not wrong.

With a final burst of speed that completely displaced the air from one side of the room to another and filled the air with dust when the shockwave hit the floor, it was impossible for him to see what happened next. When the dust settled and he opened his eyes, he was shocked to see that while Gaara was apparently seriously banged up, he had been protected from the worst of it by his gourd turning into a cushion of sand. Looking at Lee, he could tell that while the protégé of Maito Gai wasn't unconscious, his body was so thrashed that even crawling was proving to be nearly impossible. He just hoped that the Examiner Hayate judged this match to be a double KO and soon because, if not, either Lee or Gaara was going to have their ninja careers ended right there. Gaara was the first to go on the offensive, somehow creating a hand made of sand that crawled towards Lee at a brisk walking pace. Lee tried to get away but couldn't even stand, never mind crawl away quickly enough. Eventually the sand managed to grab ahold of the kid's left arm and leg, causing Lee to try and pull them free before anything happened.

Sadly, something bad did happen.

With a clenching of his right hand into a fist, Gaara caused the sand covering Lee's limbs to compact in an instant, causing everything covered by them to be crushed. Rock Lee's scream echoed throughout the entire room and no one had any trouble guessing at how severe the damage was likely to be. However it quickly became clear that the creepy Sand ninja hadn't had his fill and was causing his sand to quickly advance on the unconscious Genin to deliver the coup de grace. For a moment, he considered diving in there and using his Storm Barrier justu to protect Lee but, in true Jounin style, Gai beat him to the punch, dispersing the oncoming sand with a swipe of his hand. However this apparently knocked a few screws loose in Gaara, causing him to grasp his head with both hands as though it were going to explode.

What happened next though shocked everyone but also saddened them once they learned the truth. Just when the Examiner was about to declare the winner, it looked as though Lee had stood up and was about to continue the match. However, Gai revealed the truth that Lee had completely lost consciousness, leaving only his body to continue to defend his way of the ninja. It was both sad and touching that even without a mind to direct it Lee's body was determined to carry out the will of its owner. Fortunately Gai was able to put an end to the idea of the fight continuing and soon the medical-nins came in to tend to the heavily injured taijutsu specialist. He didn't even need to focus his eyes on their mouths to understand what they tried to pass along to Gai. The look on Gai's face said it all. The injuries to Lee's left leg and arm were beyond severe and they didn't possess the ability to repair them to the point where Lee could continue being a ninja. It was a crushing blow to the Jounin teacher and he could only imagine how Lee would feel once he regained consciousness and was informed of the diagnosis.

_I… I'll have to try and lend him some support later._ He thought as his mind produced one tragic scene after another featuring Lee, _I have to tell him… tell him something to keep his hopes alive or else… Lee might do something drastic._

&

_**Uchiha Xander VS Akimichi Chouji**_

"The final preliminary match will now begin. Akimichi Chouji against Uchiha Xander." Hayate said from his position three feet away in the direction of the raised platform.

He could tell that Chouji was nervous and not just a little bit afraid but that was due mostly to the whole reputation that the Uchiha clan had. From what he'd grasped since arriving in Konoha, the Hyuuga were pretty much the top dogs as far as families went with all the others being five rungs or more beneath them in standing. Even the Uchiha Clan wasn't closer than five rungs in terms of standing, although this was mostly due to the fact that there were only two Uchiha left in the village who weren't criminals. Back in the heyday of his clan, they were only about two rungs beneath the Hyuuga clan and this was mostly because of the three hundred and sixty degree view Byakugan afforded the latter. Well, that and the whole Juuken fighting style. Still, it looked like despite his status as a new member of the Uchiha clan Chouji was still not entirely crazy about fighting him.

"Do your best." Shikamaru yelled from his position on the balcony built into the right side of the room.

"Fatty!!" Ino yelled chipping in and instantly he saw a change in Chouji's demeanor.

Apparently making any sort of comment about the guy's weight was a major no-no since it looked like it seriously pissed off Chouji. In fact, he'd say it'd be about the same as if someone called him someone's buttmonkey.

"Let's both give this match everything we have, 'kay, Chouji?" He asked with a friendly small, "Neither of us tries to bang the other up too much and we definitely don't try to kill one another."

"You got it!" Chouji fired back, sounding completely fired up and ready to give the coming fight everything he had.

"Now **begin**!" Hayate declared before leaping to the right balcony and thus to safety.

"Baika no Jutsu!" Chouji yelled and instantly the guy blew up like a balloon until he was the size of a boulder.

After that he watched as the member of the Akimichi clan pulled his appendages into his body with each retraction being followed by the expulsion of a blast of chakra.

"Meat tank!" Chouji yelled before leaping into the air and spinning around like that boulder meant to roll over Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

_Not the most effective move in my opinion._ He thought as he evaded Chouji's efforts to roll right over him, _While the destructive force is impressive, the speed leaves something to be desired. Avoiding the attack isn't all that hard._

However if he was going to make this match a half decent one he had to draw things out a bit and let both sides perform some impressive moves. He had a pretty good idea in mind for his moves but the difficulty would be in getting the Akimichi kid to fulfill his end of the fight. Pulling two kunai with explosive tags attached to them, he waited until the 'big boned young man' was about halfway to the area of the floor that had received the most damage and then threw them in his path. Thankfully, he had timed this just right because his adversary successfully got clear of the blast zone and came down right where the floor was weakest, making the damage that much worse. Deciding to continue the trend, he leapt into the air, drew three kunai with explosive tags and threw them just behind Chouji where the floor was weakest. This was a bit better for two reasons, since it kept the spectators from thinking that he was up to something and it weakened the floor even more so than before. In fact, unless his eyes were deceiving him, he could see an exposed pipe along with a familiar liquid leaking out. Now, for the next part of his plan...

_Serpent, Tiger, Boar, Horse, Tiger. _He thought as he formed each seal, "Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!"

He unleashed a sizeable fireball at Chouji and then immediately got into position right over the exposed pipe.

"You'll have to do better than that!" Chouji said with confidence as he launched himself into the air to avoid the fire jutsu.

"Well if you insist!" He fired back before using a chakra empowered leg to break open the pipe, causing water to rapidly pour out.

_I have to work quickly before they shut off the water!_ He thought as he went through all the water element jutsu's he knew.

_Bird, Ox, Horse, Ram, Tiger, Serpent, Rat, Monkey, Hare, Boar, Dragon, Ram, Rat, Ox, Monkey, Bird, Ninth, Rat, Ram, Bird._ He thought as he put his speed seal training to the ultimate test before declaring, "Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!"

It was very close, almost **too** close, but thankfully his speed seal training had served him well allowing him to perform all twenty seals in just over nine seconds. Had he been even a second slow, Chouji would have slammed into him before he could execute the jutsu and that would have been no fun at all. The guy had been no further away than eight feet when the jutsu had been declared and it was only due to the water coming towards him out of the pipe and his own willpower that things happened the way he wanted. Instead of soaring upwards the way it usually did before assaulting the intended target, the water dragon shot out towards Chouji immediately. This succeeded in pushing the big boned ninja back up into the air but, just like he'd predicted, the rapid rotation of the meat tank taijutsu wound up redirecting at least half of the water upwards and away. As a result almost the entire floor of the hall was soaked with little puddles and streams everywhere thanks to the damage done by previous battles. While the water was cut off as he'd anticipated, it had already done its job by soaking just about every inch of the floor.

_Now onto the next part of the plan._ He thought as Chouji used his chakra to resume the downward arc towards him.

Leaping into the air and using the tree climbing jutsu to stick to the ceiling, he quickly formed the seals he needed, "Raikou bakuha no jutsu!!"

Unleashing a blast of lightning from his hands, he directed the energy not at Chouji but rather at the still-soaked floor below. It was then that he could see the spectators catch onto his plan to render the floor completely untouchable since all the electricity would be conducted through the water. However, whether it was due to all the water getting turned into steam by his attack or something about the technique Chouji was using, the big boned boy was able to bounce off the floor and fly right at him. Fortunately he had a modified move in mind that would be both cool and end the match but only if he reinforced his right leg with as much chakra as possible, otherwise he'd probably wind up breaking his leg or at least getting thrown back into the ceiling.

_Time to move!_ He thought before unleashing a pulse of chakra that not only put considerable momentum at his side but also helped him set up his next attack.

With speed that must have made it look like he had disappeared for a moment, he executed the taijutsu technique, "Gyaku Konoha Shofu!!"

With this he poured almost all the chakra he had into his right leg as it struck Chouji at roughly where he estimated the big boned guy's center of gravity was located. Nevertheless, there was a second or two of conflict between the power being thrown at each other but, in the end, his chosen target coupled with the large amount of chakra being channeled into his leg proved superior. With a thunderous boom, Akimichi Chouji slammed into the ground with enough force to create even more cracks in the stone tiles as well as dispel the Baika no Jutsu. Landing on the ground, though, he was quickly prompted by a spasm of pain in his right leg to keep most of his weight on his left leg. While his little plan had worked, it was apparent that trying to kick something with that much mass and that much power behind it did not occur without repercussions. He hoped that this was enough to finish the match because otherwise his reduced mobility would be enough for Chouji to actually hit him with his meat tank taijutsu. As what little dirt that had been stirred up by the impact settled, he had to smile a bit at the fact that Chouji was definitely out of it since there was no serious coherency in his eyes. Checking with his Sharingan, he couldn't see any aberrations in the guy's chakra that could indicate a serious injury so hopefully nothing worse than a concussion or a few bruises had occurred.

"Winner, Uchiha Xander." Hayate declared after checking to make sure that there was no chance of Chouji continuing the match.

Letting out a breath that he didn't know he'd been holding, he began to make his way back up to his teammates. It was at a pace distinctly slower than he otherwise would have done due to the amount of chakra he'd used up and the damage done to his right leg, but he decided that the pain was worth it. He'd made it past the preliminary matches and would now proceed to the main matches where he'd be fighting in front of some very influential people.

What better place to show them who he truly was and plant seeds of doubt about what kind of person they all considered his mother to be?

&

_**Ten Minutes Later, Tournament Hall**_

"To those who have made it to the main matches of the Chuunin Exam's Third Phase… all but one are here, so congratulations." Hayate said from his place on the raised platform with the Jounin and Hokage-sama standing behind him.

It had been ten minutes since his match had ended and, while the medical-nins tended to his leg (thankfully nothing broken), the Jounin had gone to talk with Hokage-sama. He'd received several pats on the back for his victory as well as the way that he'd won. Hana had remarked about how it was only because he'd finally chosen to use his head that he'd managed to pull off a win. No big surprise there. Ayeka, of course, smothered him with compliments while at the same time putting herself seriously in his personal space in an effort to seduce him. Again, no big surprise there. The surprise had come when Sarutobi Asuma had come over and thanked him for allowing Chouji to show his strength first before being defeated. Apparently the son of the Third Hokage had caught on to what had been going on and approved of it. Odds were that if Asuma knew, then so did every other Jounin and probably the smartest of the Genin as well. Not that he'd expected to pull the wool over everyone's eyes but hopefully no one would clue Chouji into the truth. While he could hope that the big boned boy wouldn't take it personally, he knew how he'd react if an opponent of his toyed with him.

_Ah well! I'll take him out for dinner to make it up to him._ He thought before quickly adding a stipulation, _Limited to a hundred ryou, of course!_

"I will now begin the explanation for the main matches." Hokage-sama said, taking the spotlight away from Hayate, "Your main fights will be shown in front of everyone. We wish for all of you to show off your abilities as your country's representative power. Therefore, the matches will begin in one month."

"We're not going to do it right here, right now?" Naruto asked, clearly not seeing a reason for things to get delayed so long.

"The one month is a time to conduct appropriate preparations." Hokage-sama replied while holding his pipe.

"What do you mean?" Ahou-sama asked from further down the line of qualifying Genin (THANK GOD!).

"In other words, we are going to announce to the feudal lords and head ninja of the individual countries that the preliminary matches have ended." The Third replied, looking towards the idiot who asked the question, "And time is needed to gather those people for the main matches. This is also time for you candidates."

"I still don't understand. Explain," stated an irritated Kankurou, who looked like he wanted to give Hokage-sama a piece of his mind.

"This time is used so you can know your enemy and yourself better," explained the old goat with no emotion in his voice to indicate that he noticed Kankuro's tone. "It is a time to analyze the information you have gathered during the preliminary matches. The battles we had were just like real combat situations. It has been done where both parties knew nothing of each other. But the main matches will not be like that. There are those who have revealed everything to their rivals. To make things fair, work hard and improve yourselves on your own in the next month."

Truer words were never spoken.

While he hadn't used every jutsu he knew, he'd done enough to let the other qualifying Genin know that B-rank jutsu were not beyond his ability to perform. They would be better prepared for the power moves next time and would either prevent him from executing them or find some way to lessen their effectiveness. They also now knew how fast he could perform hand seals, so they'd likely move the second they saw hand movement since anything else could cost them dearly.

He had a lot of work to do in the next month.

"So, I want to let you guys go, but there is something important we must do before the main matches." Hokage-sama said with a slight grin.

"What is it? I have to hurry and train!" Naruto exclaimed, sounding as impatient and loud as ever.

"Don't get so hasty. Take a piece of paper from the box that Ebisu is holding." Hokage-sama said as the closet pervert stepped forward.

"I will come to you so please wait your turn." Ebisu said in his usual pompous manner.

He was the first to be approached (lucky him!) and, doing his best to ignore the asshole's venomous glare, he reached into the box and removed a single piece of paper. This went on and on down the line until every Genin present had a piece of paper in their hand. Once done, it was apparently Examiner Ibiki's turn to take over the post preliminary proceedings.

"Okay, everyone got one?" Ibiki asked holding a clipboard in his hand, "Now, tell me what number you got, starting from the left."

"Eight." He said holding up his piece of paper so that Ibiki could see the number on it.

"One." Naruto said making it clear he was still clueless as to the reason for this.

"Seven." Temari said with about as much emotion as a rock would have.

"Five." Kankurou replied, showing only a **bit** more emotion than his teammate.

"Three." Gaara said in his usual creepy manner.

"Nine." Replied Shikamaru and you could just tell he wanted to add 'troublesome' to his response.

"Two." Said Ahou-sama.

"Six." Was what Shino revealed.

"So he must be four." Ibiki said in obvious reference to the missing Uchiha Sasuke.

"Yes. We will now tell you the match ups for the tournament." Hokage-sama announced to the Genin arrayed in front of him.

"What?" Naruto exclaimed in surprise.

"That's what we drew for?" Shikamaru asked, shock managing to keep his favorite phrase at bay.

"Ibiki, show the match ups." Hokage-sama ordered.

The match ups were as follows:

Uzumaki Naruto VS Hyuuga Neji

Gaara VS Uchiha Sasuke

Kankurou VS Aburame Shino

However when he got to his part of the match ups he realized that while he no longer considered himself a member of the Harris family, the old Harris Luck had adopted him somehow. His first match up would be against Nara Shikamaru but, instead of moving to the next round and fighting either pajama boy or bug boy, he had to beat Temari. Two fights in the first round!! Knowing his luck he'd have to fight both of them one after another instead of getting a nice respite in between matches.

The universe hated him.

That was the only possibility!

"I have a question." Shikamaru said, raising his hand like he was in a classroom.

"Okay." The Third said giving permission for the Genin to speak.

"If it's a tournament, that means there's only one winner right?" Shikamaru asked as though confirming his own suspicions, "Does that mean that only one person can become a Chuunin?"

"No, that's not how it is." Hokage-sama replied as though about to explain things, "The main matches will have judges, including me, Kazekage, as well as the feudal lords and head ninja from the other countries, who will be potential clients. These judges will grade you by watching you in the tournament. And those who are qualified to be a Chuunin, even if they lose in the first round, will become a Chuunin."

"So there's a possibility that everyone here can become a Chuunin?" Temari asked, sounding more interested than before.

"Yes, but that also means that it's possible for no one to become a Chuunin." The Third replied, pointing out another point of view, "Winning the matches in the tournament means that you are able to show off your skills more. Understand, Shikamaru-kun?"

From the look on Shikamaru's face, you could tell that 'troublesome' was being used multiple times since the Nara boy was in the same predicament that he was in. Both of them had to beat two opponents in the first round in order to move on to the next round and progress in the tournament. Given the strategic abilities of Shikamaru and Temari's effective long range jutsus, he was going to have to brainstorm quite a bit to come up with a plan to beat them.

"That is all. We are adjourned until next month." Hokage-sama declared dismissing the assembled ninja.

&


	13. Questions Asked and Answered

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. All of it is the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever.

Note: I am **SO** sorry I have kept you all waiting. My computer crashed near the beginning of September and like an idiot I had not backed up either my fanfics or my Naruto episodes. Thus I have spent all the time since then redownloading the episodes and trying to recreate my work. It's taken some time to do but I now have a new chapter of my BtVS/Naruto crossover ready to go and I hope you like it. Now I know some of you might complain that I am messing with canon and that those of you who are extremely loyal to canon will pitch a fit at some of the changes made. Therefore I am stating here and now that if **any** of you are opposed to changes to canon great and small then stop right here and never read this fanfic again. I say this because I will be writing this fanfic as I see fit to tell the story that I want to tell. That means if I don't like how it was done in canon and can feasibly alter/change/tweak things into something I can live with or like then I will do just that. Again I say that if you hate fanfics that don't strictly adhere to canon facts or events in Naruto manga and BtVS episodes then stop right here and leave.

Now on with the show…

&

_**The Rooftops Of Konoha, Near Kikyou Castle, The Middle of the Night, One Day Later, **_

_**Xander's P.O.V**_

_MAN! I'm not going to get __**ANY**__ sleep tonight! _Xander thought to himself as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop at great speed, _This wait is going to kill me unless I can think up training schedule!___

It had been the curse of the past twenty-four hours that his mind had been bombarded with situation after situation that he'd likely face at the final matches of the Third Phase of the Chuunin exam. Over and over again he had pondered how a fight might go between him and the other genin who managed to pass the preliminary matches in the tower. Shikamaru would be first, then Temari, then Kankuro or Shino and then ending with Sasuke, Gaara, Naruto or Neji as his final opponent. This was the order that he expected the matches to go in before he came out on top, winning the entire thing, thereby showing everyone just how good a ninja he really was. However he was under no illusions about just how hard it would be to beat all of the others and so he had spent more than half the time since the Hokage had dismissed the finalists. He'd seen firsthand how good they were in the preliminary matches and even more with the advantage that his Sharingan provided. As he'd learned during his fight with Rock Lee out in the forest, just because he could see the blows coming it didn't mean he could beat them, so he couldn't afford to rely on his kekkai genkai. He needed to use his brain first and foremost to think up strategies that would allow him to overcome his opponents even with the considerable strength they possessed.

First, though, he needed to tire himself out so he could get some sleep despite all the thoughts that were flying through his skull at warp speed keeping him from relaxing enough to sleep.

Deciding that the best way to go about it would be to take each opponent he would likely face and list the biggest obstacles to defeating them, Xander started his list. His first opponent was going to be Nara Shikamaru from Team Asuma. On the surface it looked like the guy was a complete lazy person who only put forth effort when he had no other choice but to do so or risk things getting even more 'troublesome'. He certainly used the word often enough to make people wonder how he became a ninja in the first place since one would think it would have been 'too troublesome' to even make it through the academy. However, in the preliminaries, he showed a keen strategic mind that kept his true movements completely hidden from Hana until it was far too late to do anything. In his mind, this made the Nara kid one of the most dangerous enemies he'd have to face even though there were others that possessed more power. It was a solid truth after all that a cunning plan could bring down just about any foe even if that enemy has seemingly overwhelming amounts of power at their disposal. If he was going to have any chance of beating Shikamaru, he was going to have to think up a cunning plan of his own and make it sneaky enough that even the Jounin's watching will need time to catch up with his train of thought. Then there was that 'Kagemane no Jutsu' technique that was one of many techniques that were the sole property of the Nara clan. On the surface it looked like a fairly simple technique to avoid or neutralize but that, he theorized, was the main reason it was so effective. Ninjas underestimated it because of the lack of flair and drama but wound up regretting their arrogance soon enough. He needed to figure out a way to neutralize it completely because once that was done, he was positive that he could finish off Shikamaru or cause the genin to just give up because fighting any more would be 'too troublesome'.

After Shikamaru came the Sand ninja Temari and her deadly wind ninjutsu techniques. He'd already seen quite well how useless projectile attacks were against her. He'd need to toss something seriously heavy as hard as he could at her if he wanted to get by the chakra infused winds that her fan could put out. Sadly, the size of the thing would give him away immediately, resulting in the blonde taking him out before the weapon could even throw it. He needed some way to completely neutralize her wind jutsus if he wanted to stand any kind of chance of beating her when the time came for them to fight. He knew there were several ninjutsu he could use to make her drop the thing and even a few genjutsu but both could be rendered ineffective with just the right gust of wind. Perhaps the key laid in making it more difficult for her to decide on just what type of wind to send his way? It was definitely something for him to consider over the next thirty days until the day of the final matches. If he could figure the right way to bring that theory into reality he knew he'd have that match all sown up.

If he managed to make it past Temari, he'd either fight Kankurou or Aburame Shino. The first was skilled in the of ninja puppetry, which meant he was primarily a long range fighter with a weak close quarters defense. The obvious way to beat him would be to get in close and kick the crap out of the guy, but he doubted that the Sand ninja would be so careless so as not to recognize his own mistake. That meant that Pajama Boy probably had a tight mid-range defense to keep any enemies from getting close enough to do him any serious harm. Still, if he could immobilize the puppet somehow, then the fight would pretty much be over with since Pajama Boy's main weapon would be gone. Selectively placed throwing needles? Aimed at the joints? It wouldn't be easy since it'd probably take the guy with the face paint only a few moments to figure out what was going on and what the American Uchiha was planning. Still, if he mixed the needles up with standard kunai as well as one or two flashy ninjutsu, he could create a big enough smokescreen to hide his efforts. As for the bug dude…well…he was a little harder to figure out since his vocabulary was about as varied as Oz back home in Sunnydale. Add to that the fact that the member of Team Kurenai was about as emotional as a pet rock, then figuring out what was going on inside his head would be difficult at best. Still, if his fight against Ayeka was any hint, then this guy was skilled at using his abilities to their fullest potential. He took the blonde's best attack and managed to use it to back her into a no-win scenario in a matter of minutes. He would have to improve his awareness of his surroundings so as not to get caught in the same trap.

His fourth fight would be against one of four genin: Gaara of the Sand, Ahou-sama, Naruto or his cousin, Sasuke. None of them were pushovers because each of them had a formidable ability that would make the first mistake he made his last if he wasn't careful. First was that monster Gaara with his sand jutsu that both made it near impossible to hurt and also allowed the redhead to attack with lightning fast strikes. Add to that the Sand Armor technique and the living sand that automatically seemed to block any harmful strikes against its master and beating the creepy ninja was going to take one helluva hat trick. Rock managed to do something with that Eight Gates technique but, in the end, even an impressive forbidden technique like that proved to be insufficient. What he would need was an attack or a strategy that would turn the wierdo's own strengths into weaknesses. Could he perhaps use a fire technique strong enough to turn the sand into glass? No. Odds were that the chakra that Gaara mixed in with his sand would negate that move or make it twice as hard to do than normal. Stretch his supply of sand out as far as possible, then get in close before it can catch up? That would require that he move faster than the sand could and the only way he knew of so far to do that was the Eight Gates forbidden technique. Defeating Gaara would require more thought.

Ahou-sama would also be a tough one with his status as a Hyuuga and a possessor of Byakugan. Close quarters combat was out of the question due to the idiot's ability to attack a ninja's tenketsus, thus shutting off the flow of chakra throughout a human's body. Long distance tactics would be more advisable but with the moron's ability to see everything around him he'd have to figure out a way to perform his jutsu's from mid-range in order to make sure they hit. That, however, would put him in danger of finding himself suddenly in a close quarters combat situation since Ahou-sama was pretty quick on his feet. Use a maneuver to blind Mr. Idiot? Possible, but that would rely on disguising a flash tag as something else otherwise the moron would know to cover his eyes ruining the tactic. Even blinded there was a chance that Neji could still land a debilitating strike and, with Juuken, it only took one strike to seriously mess a person up. He would need to come up with a single strike way of ending the fight as well if he didn't want to wind up just like he had the first time.

A move that didn't give any warning that it was approaching until a second or two before impact.

Naruto would be a rather straightforward opponent for the most part. The kid had heart and the no-give-up attitude but in terms of the number jutsus the noisy ninja knew, the boy was pretty simple. Basic academy level jutsus and the mass Shadow Clone jutsu were the only techniques blonde boy was capable of performing. Still, he had heard enough from others to know that the kid had a knack for surprising people and he'd seen signs of that during Uzumaki's match with Kiba. He'd stick to his guns but also be prepared for the unpredictable as best he could.

The one that he wasn't particularly looking forward to was fighting his cousin, should the other Uchiha manage to make it that far in the final matches of the Third Phase of the Chuunin Exam. Sasuke had Sharingan like he did but the difference between the two of them was that the younger Uchiha had more experience using his Bloodline gift than he did. It was a sad fact but even though he'd had weeks to train himself, using the special ability of his clan was still an unfamiliar thing to him. He would use it if he thought of it but he was far from being able to make full use of its various abilities in a fight. If his Sharingan was pitted against Sasuke's, then he knew he would lose that fight simply because he lacked experience using it. He would have to implement a strategy that exploited the one weakness he knew already which was that seeing didn't necessarily mean blocking. If he couldn't figure out some way to become faster than his cousin, he would compensate by staying in close so that the time between throwing a punch and landing one would be minimized. Not the most brilliant plan, but at the moment it was all he had.

_Still, if I can ever get the kid to tolerate me, I'm going to have to ask Sasuke to show me how to use this Sharingan properly._ He thought as he continued to leap from one rooftop to another.

He was about to head towards the taller buildings when he noticed some rooftop movement a little over three hundred yards to the left of his current path. There were two of them, the one behind obviously chasing the leader, and it did not look like he had stumbled across a friendly game of tag between two old friends. Both were moving at speeds consistent with Chuunins or higher ranked ninjas and it was only because he'd chosen to get some practice with his Sharingan while on this little outing of his that he was able to see them. For a moment he considered just letting the two go about their business, doing so under the belief that it wasn't any of his business, but his sleepy Sunnydale paranoia engine was prodding him to investigate matters further. Changing his course, he made to get closer to the two person game of tag in the hopes of getting a better idea of who the players were and whether or not this was a little more serious than a game. Twenty seconds later he could tell that both of them were definitely Chuunin or higher based on the flak jackets they were wearing and, unless he was mistaken, one of them was a Sand ninja. It was possible that it was merely someone dressed up to look like a Sand ninja or someone using henge to alter one's appearance. The Village Hidden in the Sand was an ally of Konoha and, combined the two of them, made for a deadly combo in the eyes of the other allied nations. If this was an effort to sow dissent between the two allies then it would have to be stopped sooner rather than later by killing or capturing this so-called Sand ninja.

He managed to close to about two hundred and twenty yards or so when the fighting finally began between the two ninjas with higher ranks than his own. The 'Sand ninja' had successfully blocked the other's path and after a brief exchange of blows the Konoha ninja flipped backwards to establish some distance between him and his target. As he got twenty yards closer, a sword was drawn and, with his Sharingan eyes, he could see a technique performed before him and identified it as a ninjutsu based on what he could see. The man charged the Sand ninja and, then just as it reached the mid-range point, three Kage Bunshin were created forcing the shinobi on the receiving end to divide his attention in four directions. However it was the sword wielder descending from above that the possible fake Sand ninja labeled as the real one but by then it was already too late. The blade struck home on the Sand ninja's shoulder but it penetrated barely an inch before the flak jacket stopped its progress. He was still a little over a hundred and fifty yards by this time but it was then that his Sharingan notice a large amount of chakra being molded by the supposed Sand ninja indicating a high level jutsu was about to be used. His concern level spiked as he realized that the Konoha ninja would have almost no chance of evading the jutsu from so close. Watching the level of chakra continue to grow he knew that he had to move **now** if he was going to have any chance of saving his fellow citizen of Konoha.

Quickly forming the necessary hand seals, he thrust both his hands out, "RAIKOU BAKUHA NO JUTSU!!"

With a crackle of energy and a flash of blue light, arcs of energy crossed the distance between him and the Sand ninja, but, sadly, it was a little too flashy. The enemy ninja was forced to break off the build up of chakra and leap backwards in order to not get hit with the attack and the Konoha ninja with the sword evaded the lightning jutsu as well. Deciding that he needed more time to close the gap and take up a position alongside his comrade, he whipped out a trio of kunai with explosive tags on them, throwing them at the feet of the Sand ninja, forcing him to move even further back. With this distraction he was finally able to land on the same rooftop as them and finally recognized the Konoha ninja as Chuunin Examiner Hayate Gekko. Turning to see who the Sand ninja could be he saw that it looked like the Jounin sensei of the Sand ninja…Boke…Baka…something like that. Looking at the man with his Sharingan activated he could see that a henge no jutsu was not being used so that would imply that this really was the Sand Jounin sensei of Gaara, Temari and Kankerou. What was he up to then? Weren't Konoha and Sunagakure allies? Whatever the case he would stand with Hayate-san and bring this Sand ninja down. Dead or alive this jerk was coming with them!

"Uchiha Xander? Why are you here?" Hayate asked splitting his attention between the now-pondering Sand Jounin and the new arrival.

"I was out for a midnight stroll when I saw you playing a nasty version of Tag with this guy." He replied taking two kunai out of his equipment pouch before slipping into a defensive position, "I got curious so I decided I'd check out what was going on. Good thing I did since it looked like this guy was going to use a high level jutsu on you before I made my move."

"You would have been better off minding your own business, boy." Jounin Baka said with some hostility at his simple one-on-one turning into a handicap match, "Now I'll just have to kill both of you."

"Talk is cheap! Koi." He stated making it clear he wasn't afraid of the situation he'd chosen to get himself involved in.

He just hoped that the Sand ninja wasn't right about his choice to involve himself.

&

_**Rooftops of Konoha, Near Kikyou Castle, Middle of the Night, One Minute Later, Hayate's P.O.V**_

_Let us win this fight! Don't let the boy die because of me!_ Hayate thought as he attempted to work with the newest member of the Uchiha clan to subdue the Sand Jounin.

It had started out simply enough. He had noticed mysterious behavior on the part the Jounin sensei of the three Sand geinin and, once he had some spare time from his Examiner duties, he'd decided to shadow the man. For the most part it had been made easy by the fact that the man was staying inside of the border of the city and so he knew of all the most useful surveillance points. However it had not been until tonight that he had finally had a break in his efforts and had become witness to two things that did not bode well. The first was the monstrous nature of the Genin Gaara. He never dreamed that such a horrible power resided within the boy! It certainly explained a great many things about the bloodthirsty redhead. It also meant though that a decision would have to be made concerning the boy's future in Konoha as well as abroad. The most important discovery though was the alliance between the Sound and Sand ninjas that was spoken about by Orochimaru's spy, Kabuto, with the Sand Jounin Baki. From what he had heard, the Villiage Hidden in the Sound had at some point in the past approached the Village Hidden in the Sand for the purpose of an alliance. The goal? The destruction of Konoha! It shocked him that one of the village's allies would betray them like this but from what he'd heard the Sand ninja village was still uneasy about the venture. Baki's reference to pulling out if Sound's true intentions were discovered and Sand's intention to keep their intentions hidden until the last possible moment proved this. Whatever the strength of Sand's commitment to the plan to destroy Konoha, he had known without thinking that he had to report this to Hokage-sama. It was then that the worst possible thing happened.

Baki and Kabuto revealed that they had been aware of his presence all along.

With that discovery, he had fled with all the speed he could manage as well as using all he had learned about escape and evasion techniques. In the end, though, it had been all for naught as Baki proved to be swifter on his feet than him and his choices had been reduced to one: fight. Deciding to go with his signature move, he'd immediately performed the Mikazuki no Mai technique in the hopes of ending the battle instantly. After the blow landed, though, he had found that he had seriously misjudged the durability of Sand ninja flak jackets for not only did his katana not cut his target in half as he'd intended but rather plunged only an inch before getting caught on something. Baki's confidence in the seconds that followed though had caused a feeling of dread to form within him but that had been interrupted by Uchiha's flashy interruption of things had dispelled that feeling. Then again, perhaps it merely replaced a feeling of personal dread with a great deal of concern for the young Genin. While the boy had showed himself to be a sound thinker in the middle of a battle and capable of employing advanced techniques, he still lacked the necessary experience to make use of it all. If given time he was certain that the young man would become one of the strongest ninja in Konoha but thanks to the current situation, that future was in danger of being obliterated. For Baki to choose to remain here to dispose of the two of them spoke greatly of the importance Sand placed on this future assault on Konoha as well as the confidence the Sand Jounin had in his abilities.

Victory for him and the Uchiha was in doubt.

"Hayate-san! Look out!" Xander yelled bringing his mind back to the present rather than his own deep thoughts.

"KAMAITACHI NO JUTSU!" Baki declared before using two miniature fans that had previously been hidden to send a pair of air gusts mixed with deadly chakra towards him.

_Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger!_ He thought as he formed the necessary hand seals, "KATON: GOUKAKYU NO JUTSU!"

With an adjustment in the positioning of his right hand, he unleashed the C-rank fire jutsu and watched it intercept the fūton technique. With the collision of a potent fire attack and a wind jutsu of comparable strength the result was an explosion of light and energy as the two cancelled each other out. Landing on the nearest rooftop, he watched as Xander threw a duo of kunai, aimed apparently at Baki's fan wielding hands, but they were blown out of the air before they could reach their targets. However this did not deter the young ninja as he unleashed another lightning jutsu like the one that had been used to prevent Baki from launching his counterattack to the Mikazuki no Mai technique. It was an impressive technique, a B or C rank technique he'd wager, and he wondered if the young man had copied it with his Sharingan or learned it from someone normally. Whatever the case, the Sand Jounin was able to evade it but with a little less room to spare than he'd thought there'd be considering the difference in skill level between the two. However that was when he realized that the Uchiha must have used his Sharingan to predict the direction the Sand ninja would move and then fired. While that alone couldn't account for everything when aided by the fact that Baki most likely was underestimating the young ninja it was enough to ensure that there'd be a few close calls. Moving in with his katana at the ready, he prepared to be a distraction for the Genin so that the American Uchiha could make preparations for his next move.

"You have more than one enemy to fight Baki!" He yelled to draw the Jounin sensei's attention away from his last attacker.

Unlike the last time he swung his katana at the man, he knew better than to try and aim for the man's torso area. Even if he were to somehow put a greater level of force behind his attack, it was unlikely that they'd fair any better than the first one. Instead he focused his attack on the man's arms and legs in the hopes of scoring a disabling limb strike that would either hinder the man's movements or prevent him from executing a ninjutsu or genjutsu. Sadly, aiming for a smaller target was more difficult than a large one. It was one of the reasons why most ninja were taught to aim for the torso with extra emphasis to the locations of vital organs. That is why it was only skill that allowed him to score a glancing slash across the Sand ninja's left leg causing blood to flow and Baki to cry out in pain. It was not a deep cut, certainly not enough to cause serious damage to the thigh muscle, but apparently it was enough to cause the man to reconsider his situation.

Smart.

Alone it was quite possible that Baki could have defeated and slain him without anyone being the wiser until hours if not days later. He was not so arrogant in his skills so as to believe he could have handled the Sand ninja easily or perhaps even survive, but the arrival of the Uchiha things had changed slightly. With two targets instead of one, the treacherous ally now had to split his attention between them because even if Xander was not equal to them in strength, his kekkai genkai made up for the difference. He knew it made the Sand ninja hesitant to use some of his more powerful jutsus for fear of the possibility that the Uchiha bloodline would be used to copy them. That wind ninjutsu technique he used was similar to what the Genin Temari used during the preliminary matches, albeit on a smaller scale, and that was a C-rank jutsu. While the older man might have thought he could still win a fight with such low ranking jutsu, it appeared that now he was reconsidering his tactics in light of how surprisingly difficult it was proving to be to vanquish his two opponents quickly.

That could be a problem for them.

It would mean that Baki might start using B or A-Rank jutsu's in an effort to make up for the difference in numbers between the two sides. While he was confident he could evade the technique, deal with it when it came, he did not believe that Uchiha Xander would be able to do so unless he was very lucky indeed. Not wanting it to come to that he decided that he would end this fight before Baki had a chance to employ any high level techniques. Pushing the majority of his chakra into his legs in order to increase the speed of his movements, he closed the gap between himself and Baki, swinging his blade as he moves in an attempt to land a blow. He purposefully aimed so that it will look to the Sand ninja like he will easily be able to evade it but he then employed a jutsu that is considered the signature move of Sarutobi Asuma.

The Flying Swallow technique.

With the use of a considerable amount of willpower on his part, he shifted the flow of chakra from his legs to his blade, thus extending its reach by creating a blade of energy that can reach further than the metal one. It was true that this technique was done with a bit more flair by Asuma and he was not as skilled in its use because it required quite a bit of chakra for him to use properly, but he would make it work this time. As he'd hoped, the ninja from the Village Hidden in the Sand was not prepared for the sudden change in the blade's length and so blood was spilled once more. This time it was a cut to the man's right upper arm and it looked to be deep enough to have done respectable damage to the Sand ninja's muscles. However, because he had placed so much effort into increasing his speed, changing directions now would be extremely difficult if he didn't want to wind up falling off the roof. Applying a variation of the tree climbing technique, he increased the friction around his feet in order to slow himself as much as possible. He did it just enough so that he would not fall off the roof but he could not afford to become too slow or he would be a sitting duck for Baki. As he felt his speed drop to an acceptable level, he began to turn, away from the Sand ninja's position, but as he did so he heard the sound of multiple shuriken approaching through the air.

_Chikushou! Have to turn! _He thought as he pushed his body to move faster so that he could reorient his body to block the oncoming projectiles.

He was only halfway turned when he felt two sharp points of pain blossom on his body and he knew that he had been hit. However he could have sworn that there were three shuriken coming at him from what he had heard prior to getting hit.

"Are you gonna just stand there bleeding or are you gonna help me take this asshole down?" Came the voice of Uchiha Xander, whose voice sounded a little tight.

Turning fully around, he was immediately enlightened as to why the young man's voice had such a taut quality to it. There had indeed been a third shuriken but rather than hit him Xander had managed to get into the weapon's path and block it with his forearm. A reckless move when he could have just as easily deflected it with a kunai but it was then he noticed that the Genin's hands were empty. Had he not had time to draw a new weapon? Where had the two kunai he'd had in his hands when last he looked gone? Turning in the direction he expected to find Baki he could see twin cuts on the man's shoulder that looked like they had been created by near misses with a pair of kunai. A case of underestimating one's opponent it would seem. Nevertheless, Xander was right. He could not afford to pay unnecessary attention to the wounds he'd sustained with the enemy still in front of them looking as ready as ever to fight. Moving himself into a position on the Uchiha's flank, he immediately took stock of the damage he'd received in order to better plan ahead for what might come his way. One kunai had landed in his shoulder and would limit movement in that area and would only bleed harder if he tried to force the arm to do more than it could. The second kunai had penetrated his right thigh and would make quick movements three times as difficult as well as the smallest of leaps. Thus it seemed that even with Xander's efforts to aid him he was in a very poor strategic position and were it not for the fact that Baki was in a similar state he might have considered the situation grim indeed. With the newly arrived Uchiha in reasonable shape and him still able to offer some resistance to the Sand ninja's desire to kill them, both there was still a chance this could end well.

"I've grown tired of having to deal with you two." Baki said with noticeable annoyance in his voice, "NOW IS THE TIME TO END THIS!!"

With those words the Sand ninja began forming hand seals at a rapid pace, too fast for him to see every one of them, but it was enough for him to know that it would be above a C-ranked jutsu in power. He tried to bring up his own hands to form the seals necessary for a jutsu of equal strength so that anything sent towards he and the Uchiha would be cancelled out but found his arm unable to bring his right arm close enough to his left arm to form the seals. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that Xander had just figured out that something powerful was heading their way and he watched as the Uchiha's own hands began to form seals.

It would be too late, though.

As fast as Uchiha Xander's hands were, Baki's were faster. As strong a technique as Xander might be able to perform, it was questionable as to whether it would be enough to protect them from the Sand ninja's assault. With this in mind, he used his one good hand to reach for a couple of flash tags he had in there in the hopes of using them to distract the Sand Jounin long enough for Xander to execute his jutsu. Sadly his hand was just too slow and with a malicious smile on Baki's face the man executed his jutsu.

"KAZE NO YAIBA!" Baki declared as barely perceivable blades of wind flew threw the air.

If that had been the attack that the American ninja had interrupted earlier then he would most assuredly be dead right now. At a distance of a little over ten meters he could barely perceive them. If he had been only a meter away as before he would only have known pain before succumbing to death's cold grip.

Now it seemed as though he was going to die a much slower death.

"ARASHI KANMON NO JUTSU!" Uchiha Xander declared before kunai with wires tied to one end flew out from behind him and began to crisscross the area right in front of them by wrapping around the chimneys.

It was close, almost **too** late, but he saw the kunai finish their movements and the blue glow appear between them just in time to block the attack.

At least that was what he thought.

That changed when he saw that the only affect Xander's Arashi Kanmon technique had on Baki's Kaze no Yaiba was to take the solid blades of chakra filled wind and splinter them. As the fragments continued on their chosen path, only with a little deviation due to the original impact between the techniques, he could only conclude that the barrier had only blunted the technique some. It was not capable of stopping it. His mind became filled with spikes of pain as the few air blade fragments that had the strength to reach him tore though cloth to draw blood from his body. Partially he heard the cries of the Uchiha and knew that the fragments were cutting through him as well and prayed that he would be spared serious injury. The boy was only here due to bad luck and a sense of honor that could only exist in a ninja too young to know how dangerous ignoring certain realities of a ninja's life. By the time the assault was over with and no new sources of pain were introduced, he knew he would not be able to continue fighting Baki. It had been bad enough thanks to those kunai but now with cuts all over his body made by the nearly invisible fragments it would take just about all his strength to remain standing. If the Sand shinobi struck again, it would be the end for both him and for the newest member of Team Anko. He could already hear Xander's breathing becoming increasingly labored and that sound was gradually becoming mixed with drops of blood hitting the roof they stood on.

He was about to ask the Uchiha if he was well enough to make a run for it when a foul chakra suddenly flooded the area bombarding his senses with all the subtlety of an Akimichi eating. In his weakened state, he did not possess the strength to resist it for long and in the end the darkness of unconsciousness rose up to swallow him swiftly. His last thought before all was lost was that he hoped enough commotion had been caused by the fight to draw other Konoha shinobi to the location. If they did come, they'd be able to save the Uchiha and deal with whatever was producing the foul chakra.

That was his hope.

&

_**Ten Hours Later, Konoha Hosptial, Morning, Xander's P.O.V**_

The sun awoke him first.

It made him wonder why the blinds weren't doing their jobs by keeping the sun out. He was about to turn away from it in the hopes of getting more sleep when the pieces of the recent passed began to fall into place within his mind. His midnight stroll across the rooftops. The Sand ninja chasing the Konoha ninja! A fight! He remembered trying his best to support his fellow Konoha shinobi and use his Sharingan to its fullest with every move he made. He remembered trying to use his Storm Barrier technique to protect both him and Examiner Hayate Gekko from a high level wind ninjutsu. It had failed though, only causing the attack to splinter into many smaller blades, pieces that cut through him like many straws being driven through a telephone pole at high velocity. He remembered barely managing to stay on his feet having used his arms to protect his vital areas as best they could but even after the bombardment ended he was barely able to stand. Nevertheless he had done his best to not give up, to think of a next move, but as he saw the Sand ninja preparing another technique something…happened. He tried to recall what that something was but it was nothing but a mess of blurs and muffled sounds that he had no hope of making any sense of. Then he woke up here in what was obviously the Konoha hospital and in surprisingly less pain then he was expecting considering the thrashing he took. Doing his best to sit up, though, he winced as pain cascaded up and down his torso, letting him know that while he was better than he'd expected himself to be, he still wasn't perfect just yet. He didn't think that it would interfere with his training for the final matches but he'd definitely have to go easy at first until all of his wounds had completely healed. Hearing the door open, he realized that they must have had someone waiting for him to wake up so that they could ask him some questions.

The ones that came through the door though were a mix of familiar and unfamiliar.

First was a female ANBU agent with purple hair and a sword strapped to her back. Her movements were sharp and measured, however he couldn't tell given the mask she was wearing. Next came Hokage-sama, who looked oddly upset but softened his features when their eyes met one another. Anko-sensei was the third to come in the door and while she looked briefly happy to see him, she quickly shoved that aside putting a disapproving look on her face. No doubt she was happy that he was alive but also upset that he went and did something to get himself in the hospital again. The fourth person to come through the door and apparently the last one was an old woman who looked to be about the same age as The Third. She pretty much epitomized the idea of a cranky old woman who thought everyone other than her was a worthless good for nothing that needed to be put in their place on an almost daily basis. In appearance at least she did. However he got the feeling that she ranked pretty high in terms of the Konoha government so he mentally swore to keep a civil tongue in her presence.

Until she pushed him too far at least and then he made no promises.

"I see you've woken up. How do you feel?" Hokage-sama asked, coming to a stop to the right of his bed.

"Liked I've been worked over by a Hyuuga Juuken master." He replied as he tested his torso muscles and wincing with pain as his wounds protested, "Still, I'm probably a lot better off than I should be, all things considered. How did I get here? Last thing I recall was passing out on a rooftop."

"What precisely **did** happen?" Asked the Old Woman in a tone that implied she suspected he was involved in something.

Despite how he'd **like** to answer the old bat, he kept his cool and told those present what happened in a blow-by-blow manner from start to finish. He didn't leave any detail out and did his best to be as precise as possible with his words so no one could say he lied or made a mistake or anything. He told how he'd been so concerned about the final matches in a month's time that he'd had trouble sleeping and so had decided to burn off his nervous energy hopping rooftops. He told them how he'd spotted two people hopping rooftops a short distance away, one chasing another, and how he'd gone in for a closer look. Then came the moment when Hayate had gotten his sword caught on the enemy ninja's flak jacket almost dooming him to a fatal assault if a lightning jutsu hadn't been employed to separate the two. He told them how for a time they'd been able to match evenly with the Sand Ninja but it was about then that his memories started to blur a bit. He could remember Hayate going in for a slash with his katana only to over do it, leaving himself open for a trio of shuriken only one of which he had been able to intercept after he threw the kunai he'd been holding to distract the Sand ninja. He remembered using the Storm Barrier technique to try and save both him and Hayate but then after that he could recall nothing. That was when the blurry part began and dominated his mind until he finally woke up here.

He examined the looked they gave him after he ended his report and he could tell that either something big had happened or they thought he had left something out of his report.

Considering the way the old bat was looking at him it was safe to say that she thought she was looking at a future inmate of the Konoha prison.

"What's with the looks?" He asked, looking back and forth between the only two people whose opinions mattered to him.

"About one thirty this morning, something tore apart almost half of the Kikyou district of Konoha destroying many buildings. It was good fortune that the sounds of you, Hayate and this Sand ninja had caused so much noise since it motivated the citizens in the area to flee quickly." Hokage-sama replied just as the old hag looked ready to open her mouth, "An ANBU team was dispatched immediately and report seeing potent wind, water, earth, lightning and fire ninjutsu being used. By the time they arrived at the focus of the commotion it was all over. They found you and Hayate Gekko at the center of it all. Both of you were unconscious and wounded."

"Hayate! How is he?" He asked hoping that his attempt to save the examiner hadn't blown up in his face.

"I won't lie to you, Xander-kun." Anko said sounding more serious than he could recall her being before, "He's pretty banged up but considering the mess in the Kikyou district, it's a miracle you two aren't dead. The medical-nins have him stabilized and he's expected to make it but he's still very weak. The docs figure it'll be at least a month or so before he's in any shape to answer questions."

While the news hadn't exactly been as good as he'd hoped, it'd be he was still relieved that the examiner was still alive despite everything that had happened.

"Can you tell us anything about the Sand ninja you encountered?" Asked the female ANBU ninja, who sounded like his answer was very important to her.

"He was wearing a flak jacket and that turban thing that I know people from the Sand village wear. It was thick because I remember Hayate's sword penetrating only an inch when he landed a blow with it." He replied as he tried to recall as much about the enemy as possible, "I'd say he was definitely Jounin level with some of the techniques he was throwing at us. I…I…can't remember his face clearly but I get the feeling that I've seen him someplace before, sometime recently, but I just can't make his face come into focus in my mind."

"How fortunate for this supposed Sand ninja," said the old woman skeptically as she gave him the hairy eyeball. "With no one able to positively identify who it was and any evidence at the scene destroyed, Konoha cannot make any accusations whatsoever in retaliation. Though I suppose it was fortunate for Hayate that you **happened** to be in the area at the time."

"Yes, it was. If he hadn't been there a valued Konoha shinobi might have been lost." Third said firmly,looking at the old woman with a warning in his eyes, "As it was, no one died and while the damage was extensive, it is nothing that Konoha cannot recover from."

He could tell that the old bat didn't approve of being obstructed from continuing her own brand of hostile questioning but a firm look from the Professor stopped her. That pretty much told him that this woman was probably a member of the village council and that meant she was in the same boat as that asshole Ebisu, the boat that had only people who believed his mother was a traitor and saw him as a traitor in the making. This immediately put the old hag in the enemy column or at least someone who he didn't want to have to spend any more time with than absolutely necessary for **both** their sakes.

"Glad to hear it." He said, doing his best to keep his voice neutral and professional.

"The docs say you're okay to leave whenever you're ready but they want you to lay off the training for at least three more days before doing anything." Anko-sensei said, making it clear she wouldn't let him push himself too soon, "Also you're going to have me as a babysitter until we get the mess about Kikyou district cleared up. Can't have anyone killing off my newest student before the final matches, right?"

He nodded even though he didn't like the idea of someone following him around like he was some kind of helpless amateur. At least it was someone he knew rather than some faceless ANBU or some other ninja with the same mindset as the majority of the village council. Plus he knew that if he phrased a request just right, that Anko wouldn't mind bending her orders a little just for him. For now, though, he'd just soak up the service of the hospital staff and maybe get an order of Ichiraku Ramen out of the deal before he checked out.

"I believe that this information you've given us will do for now. If you remember anything else, Xander, please tell me immediately." Hokage-sama said before turning to the old hag with a look that clearly told 'we are leaving and do not fight me on this because you will lose'.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." He said before nodding with respect in the Third's direction.

With that the group began to file out with the old bat going first, fuming the entire way, the Hokage close behind her and the female ANBU being third in line, leaving Anko-sensei to take up the rear position.

However just before she left and closed the door behind her she turned to him with a smile and said, "Oh! Hana and Ayeka said they'd be by in a little while to visit as well. They said something about talking to you about your habit of getting the crap kicked out of you. At least that's what Hana said. Ja-ne!"

With that she left the room and closed the door behind her, leaving him with just one thought in his head.

_Maybe I should check out sooner rather than later._

&

_**Konoha Hospital, A Little After 12:00p.m, Sasuke's P.O.V**_

_It's time I left here and found Kakashi-sensei._ He thought as he finished counting the five minutes he felt would be needed to make his escape.

Throwing the bed sheet off, he got out of the hospital bed and winced a bit as he reflexively clasped a hand over the cursed seal on the back of his neck. Even though he knew that Kakashi had only been trying to help getting that Fūja Hōin technique in place to keep Orochimaru's 'gift' in check but **damn** it hurt. Not that he'd let the pain show on his face. No. He was not that weak. He would **never** allow himself to be **that** weak! Going over to where they'd stashed his clothes, he slipped them on quickly and put his ninja gear on as well. He knew from the nurse that he'd been unconscious for quite a while and that meant he had less time to prepare for the final matches. He'd been told the names of those that had made it past the preliminary matches: Gaara of the Sand Village, Hyuuga Neji of Team Gai, Naruto, Nara Shikamaru of Team Asuma, Temari of the Sand Village, Kankurou of the Sand Village, Aburame Shino of Team Kurenai and his **cousin** from Team Anko. He still didn't know what to feel with regards to the new member of his family who dropped into his life a little over two weeks ago. On the one hand, he was suspicious of this Xander, if for no other reason than there shouldn't have been any other Uchiha left in this world thanks to **Itachi**. For one to show up hinted at deception or perhaps the insertion of a spy for the purpose of collecting information. On the other hand there was a… wisp of something inside of him that wanted to reach out to the older relation and form a bond to replace the one that had been ruthlessly severed six years ago.

_NO! I don't need that anymore!_ He thought as he brutally suppressed the ghost-like feeling from the past, _I can't be like that if I want to be strong enough to avenge my family!_

In the end he decided he'd put any future confrontation he might have with Uchiha Xander on the metaphorical shelf for the time being. There would be time enough for that after the Chuunin Exam was passed and he rose to the rank of Chuunin, after which he would rise even higher to Jounin. While he was unable to match his treacherous brother where the rate of his advancement was concerned, he would make sure that he was ahead of everyone else in his age group. He would use the time he had training with Copy Ninja Kakashi to advance his skill with his Sharingan and become stronger than all of the other finalists. Hopefully his Jounin Teacher had been able to observe the majority of the matches so he could gain some tactical information on them that he had been prevented from gaining firsthand thanks to undergoing the sealing technique. Once he knew who he might be facing in the finals, he could choose areas to focus his training on and devise strategies for the purpose of defeating his opponents. Some would be harder than others but, nevertheless, he would defeat them all and prove his strength not only to himself but to everyone who saw him fight as well.

Walking over to the window, he carefully opening the window he peeked outside for any sign that he had been placed under guard. Nothing. Activating his Sharingan, he looked again, paying special attention to the flows of chakra within his field of vision, he again found nothing that would indicate a concealed shinobi. He was about to leap out to get to the nearest rooftop when movement to his right told him that someone else had beaten him to the punch on that account. Looking at that someone, he was surprised to see that it had been Xander and, based on the trajectory of the older Uchiha's leap, the newcomer had also been in a hospital room. This proved to be quite interesting and, considering how he'd intended to speak with the unknown member of his family sooner or later, he decided that there was no time better than the present. Leaping across the lawn of the hospital before using the fence as a springboard to launch himself onto the closest rooftop, he began his pursuit of his relation.

Analyzing the other ninja without really noticing it, he could see that while the older person wasn't new to it, he was not familiar enough with the layout of Konoha to be able to do it without thinking. He could also tell that while the American Uchiha hadn't been in the hospital for serious injuries, the damage that he did have was enough to cause some minor flaws in his movements. Not that he himself was in any better shape after Kakashi-sensei's sealing technique but he definitely had advantages that his relation didn't have. Bringing up a map of Konoha in his mind and plotting out the most likely path that Xander would take, he immediately changed his own course to bring him to the best interception point. Increasing his speed moderately, he used every structure he came across to his advantage, whether it be roof, walkway, sign or window to minimize whatever obstacles there were that might slow him down. In the end he arrived at his chosen interception point thirty seconds sooner than he'd originally intended but he could see his target approaching at normal speed just the same.

Watching Xander come to a stop on the rooftop directly across the street from the one he himself was standing on, he could tell that the older ninja-trained teen was aware of the reason that they needed to talk.

"If you want to talk, we should go someplace a little more private." Xander said respectfully yet firmly, "There are some answers you might want that I'd prefer not to go beyond the two of us."

Interesting.

He had indeed intended to ask difficult questions of his relation but he'd thought it would be a great deal harder to pry the answers from his lips. Now it seemed as though Xander was willing to answer his inquiries freely so long as they spoke in private where none but the two of them would know what was said. While he did not like any delay in receiving the information he desired about the newest member of his clan, he would accept it for the sake of ensuring that the answers would be clearer and more open.

"Follow me." He said and immediately left in the direction of the only place where he could reasonably be sure that the discussion would receive the privacy it deserved.

With moderate speed they proceeded across the rooftops of Konoha towards the Uchiha district but, more precisely, the Uchiha shrine where in the past all the governing members of the clan would gather to discuss matters. It was deep within the district and with the memory of his murdering brother's actions still fresh in everyone's mind few, if anyone, dared to enter the district unless they were specifically looking for him. Even if the nursing staff found out he had left his room, they would have no true idea concerning where he had gone or where to start looking. They would check the training grounds, his apartment, several of the locations around the village where he'd been known to spend some time but the shrine would be the last place they'd look. That fact would give him enough time to get the more important questions answered leaving only the more minor ones at risk of never being answer when they were eventually discovered or he decided he needed to start his training. It took them only ten minutes to reach the location since he'd chosen a more indirect route to ensure that no one followed them or had any idea what their ultimate destination was. While some might consider this paranoia, it was always a good thing to practice one's skills when one could so one could become stronger.

Once inside, he decided that it was time to finally get the answers he wanted from his relative that came from America.

"I will start with the only question I did not get answered when we first met: who are your parents?" He asked deciding that exchanging pleasantries would only make things overly complicated.

Looking into Xander's eyes, he could see that while the older teenager was somewhat surprised by the directness he was not going to allow this to affect his decision to answer questions.

"I do not know who my father was. I only know that he did not go with my mother to America when she left Konoha." Xander replied with honesty in every word, "As for her name, it was…Uchiha Jun'ko."

The name instantly struck a chord in his mind because of how he recalled his father telling him of how vigilant all members of the Uchiha clan had to be as ninjas. He hadn't been told everything, even now looking back he could clearly see that certain facts were left out, but he had been told enough to cause his mistrust of this teenager to rise. He had been told that, during the war with the Country of Lightning, a spy had been discovered that had been passing on secret documents to the enemy. He had been quickly apprehended but before he was slain he implied that one of the Uchiha clan had been aiding him as a final blow against his former comrades before he breathed his last. This Uchiha had been Jun'ko, a skilled kunoichi as well as a former student of Tsunade Senju, who had been consider unconventional and non-traditional when it compared to other ninja. However she had also been in a relationship with the traitor that had many seeing wedding bells in their future and so the possibility that she was in league with him was possible. Either that or she might know more about the man's activities that could prove useful in determining just how much damage the treacherous man had done. However, when they arrived at the home of Jun'ko, they found the entire place engulfed in flames that burned as hot as the most potent of flame ninjutsu techniques. Immediately the local fire department was called but, when the flames were finally put out, there was no sign of anyone having been in the building when it burnt to the ground. It was immediately suspected that she had used the fire to try and fake her death so that she could escape without fear of pursuit. ANBU units were dispatched immediately to comb the immediate area for any sign of her. In the end, though, nothing was found and it was concluded that the woman had truly perished in the fire and the lack of body merely meant that her remains had been completely rendered unto ash.

Further investigation was conducted by when evidence they could find and in the end it was decided that Uchiha Jun'ko was at the very least severely negligent in her duties as a ninja. At the very most she was a willing participant in the traitors actions and thus responsible for the deaths of every Konoha ninja that had been killed due to the stolen documents. A public announcement was made soon after publically naming her as a traitor to Konoha. He recalled how bitter is father had sounded telling him this tale, how it had hurt the Uchiha's clan's standing in Konoha, but he had been told that they would do all they could to erase that shame from their family. Upon hearing this tale, he too had sworn to do all he could to prove to the people of Konoha that Uchiha Jun'ko had been an isolated case rather than that which all members of the clan should be compared to.

"I know what you must be thinking right now. How you must believe that because my mother was declared a traitor that I too must somehow be untrustworthy." Xander said looking at him directly without any dishonesty, "However I ask that you let me finish explaining before you make any judgments of your own."

The honesty in his relation's words was enough to give him the benefit of a doubt since Hokage-sama obviously had been willing to since Xander wasn't in prison right now. Nodding, he gave permission for the American Uchiha to tell his side of things and did his best to reserve judgment until the end. Thus began the tale of how Xander acquired the knowledge of the way of the ninja, how he'd clung to the idea that his mother was on some important mission, the battle with the Taraken Cloud ninja and ending with his journey to Konoha. He had to admit he could sense no deception in the teenager's words and, if his tale was true, then the American had been completely ignorant of his ninja heritage previous to last fall. It also cast some suspicion on her status in Konoha as a traitor since it was rather uncommon for someone capable of betraying one's entire village to sacrifice their life to save anyone. However, it was possible she had been guilty of treason back then and learned to better herself later on in life raising Xander. If that was indeed the case, did that excuse her past treachery? Did that mean that the Uchiha in front of him deserved to be seen as a traitor in the making? He wasn't sure.

And until he was sure, he would look at Uchiha Xander based on his own words and deeds rather than the ones belonging to his mother.

"I don't know what the truth is about your mother, Xander. She's dead and I will never get the chance to meet her in person." He said respectfully and honestly while never letting his gaze leave his relative's eyes, "However, I know better than most what it's like to be judged based on the actions of a close family member. So I won't make the same mistake as the more narrow minded ninjas of Konoha. I will judge you based on **your** words and **your** actions."

"That is all I ask, cousin." Xander replied with a grateful half bow to him.

"Cousin?" he asked inquiringly.

"Yes. It was one of the things I checked out on my own time during the few free days Anko-sensei gave us while we were all training for the Chuunin Exam." Xander replied with a lighthearted lopsided grin, "Apparently my mother and your mother were sisters."

This claim was supported by how he could recall his mother reprimanding his father those few times his Dad truly began to curse the name of Uchiha Jun'ko. It was rare since the head of the Konoha Military Police was usually smart enough to know when not to upset his wife and would avoid topics that would inspire her to punish him somehow. Even though it was made clear to all that Jun'ko was a suspected traitor and a stain on the Uchiha name, his mother still defended her sister's honor as best she could. Clearly the two sisters had been close to one another and even with the evidence of her sister's betrayal, his mother refused to abandon her personal opinion of her sibling. In his mind, this only further supported Xander's belief that his mother was a good person rather than the fiendish traitor most believed her to be.

"Then I am happy we had this discussion…," he said extending his hand to Xander, "cousin."

"Likewise, cousin." Xander said taking his hand and shaking it firmly.

With all the words that needed to be spoken said and the answers he'd sought provided, his mind was now finally clear of any distractions that might hinder his training. Turning and walking towards the exit/entrance to the shrine, he began to mentally debate where he would be most likely to find Kakashi-sensei. However, before he left, he thought that there was indeed one more thing that needed to be said to his cousin.

"Train hard, Xander. I expect to face you in the last match of the final phase of the exam." He said giving the other Uchiha a challenging grin, "Don't disappoint me."

"Same goes for you, Sasuke." Xander said with confident look in his eyes, "It'd probably piss a whole lot of people off if didn't make it all the way to the end and fight one another."

Nodding, he dashed out of the shrine and leapt to the nearest tree before mentally mapping out a route that would not indicate to anyone where he had been or where he'd gone after leaving the hospital. As he progressed from tree branches to rooftops, he found himself oddly looking forward to meeting his cousin in the final phase of the Chuunin Exam. Uchiha vs Uchiha.

It'd certainly be a match for the record books.

&

_**The Forests Outside of Konoha, One Hour Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_They'll never find me here. _He thought as he reached a line of trees lining the top of a waterfall, _Time to get some brainstorming in._

It had been an hour since what he'd expected to be the most difficult discussion he'd ever have had come to an end and it had left him feeling optimistic about the future. It had been an annoying killer bee inside his head that when he finally got to sit down with his cousin Sasuke that the kid would wind up either pissing him off or hating his guts. Not all that unreasonable, since the younger Uchiha had far too many characteristics in common with Deadboy back home and had been raised around people who'd probably made the name Jun'ko a curse word all his life. In the end, though, his relative had chosen to set aside the past and judge him on his own merits rather than the actions of the person he was related to. Not that he'd let his mother rank among the listed traitors to Konoha any longer than he had to, but it was nice to know that he wouldn't be butting heads with family over it. Once that was done, he'd chosen to resume what he'd been doing when he'd bumped into Examiner Hayate last night and that was coming up with tactic after strategy after sneaky plan to defeat his opponents at the Chuunin Exam final matches. He already had a fair idea of what to watch out for with his opponents but now came the tough part of trying to figure out a way to neutralize or counter their strong points.

Nara Shikamaru's strongest points, in his mind at least, was his Kagemane no Jutsu and his analytical mind. The first was dangerous because it could literally use any darkness or shadow to lengthen itself even further than if it merely used the person's own natural shadow. While he hadn't been to the arena where the final matches were set to take place, he imagined that it would be comprised of a variety of terrain so as to provide a balanced battlefield for all ninja. Did that mean it had a lake or something? Probably not but it wouldn't hurt to plan for such a possibility nonetheless. In any case, a varied terrain would almost certainly mean quite a few shadows and that meant quite a few danger areas that Shikamaru could use to his advantage with his Shadow Imitation technique. He'd have to figure out some way of keeping Mr. Troublesome out of those areas. Explosive tags rigged with proximity fuses? No, they'd have to be rigged to blow if something possessing chakra were to pass near them, otherwise the Nara boy could simply throw shuriken at them to cause them to detonate prematurely. If he succeeded in somehow eliminating ways to lengthen the shadow, that would still leave him with the inability to get in close for any taijutsu combat. Not necessarily a bad thing since he was fairly good at ninjutsu and genjutsu but, depending on his foe's evasion abilities, he could wind up wasting a lot of chakra. He needed to get rid of that Kagemane no Jutsu! The only question was 'how'. As for Shikamaru's analytical mind, the answer to that was obvious: use nothing he'd already employed in the preliminary matches and end the battle quickly. By doing the former then most, if not all, the plans that the kid might have drawn up would be eliminated. As for the latter, he knew that in order to analyze anything effectively you needed information and that meant that the longer the match went on, the more ammunition he'd wind up giving his opponent's analytical mind. Definitely not a good idea.

For the Sand kunoichi Temari, the fan she wielded would be the most important obstacle to overcome. It was her primary weapon and a key component in her jutsu's so if he managed to take that out of the fight, he'd be halfway to victory. He wasn't foolish enough to think that the young blonde wouldn't have a plan of her own ready to go if someone managed to take away her huge fan. The problem was that he didn't know what that contingency plan was. In her fight with Tenten, the foreign ninja had never had to resort to it and that left him in the dark as to how to prepare for it. Was it a smaller fan that could be concealed in her clothes? Possible, but they'd have to be pretty small so as not to cause bulges that would catch the attention of enemy ninja. Even if she put the large fans in areas where her own natural…curves would make it difficult to perceive them, there'd be a definite size limitation that would reduce their destructive power. He wouldn't be able to get rid of **every** fan she brought out because she'd catch onto the strategy soon enough if he repeated the same moves every time. Once he got her big fan away from her, he'd need to keep her focus away from re-arming herself with something useful or even more powerful than her primary weapon. A genjutsu? Possible, but it'd have to be pretty potent since either willpower or pain could break an illusion technique. It'd have to be something non-lethal that wouldn't do a lot of damage but would definitely help him win the fight. Contrary to what some might think, there was no chance in hell that he would kill someone just for the sake of this Exam. It would take some more thought on his part but he was confident he could deduce the right jutsu for Temari.

With Kankurou or Shino, misdirection would be the biggest threat coming from both of them. For the former it was the obvious fact that any puppets Pajama Boy used would have all sorts of hidden tricks in them that wouldn't pop out until the last minute. His Sharingan would only be of marginal use there since the puppet did not possess chakra of its own and his foe's movements would be of little help in determining what his tool would do next. The best his bloodline limit would do for him would be to give him some advance warning of the attack and hopefully that would be enough to give him the time he needed to dodge or counter. Much like the female Sand ninja, Kankurou's threat level would be reduced greatly if his primary tool was neutralized but the method for doing that would take some serious thinking. He doubted that it'd be as simple as pinning the wooden construct down somehow and then heading after the puppeteer. A genjutsu would be great since a puppeteer would need to use his/her senses to be able to direct their tool towards the desired target. Something he'd have to look into. As for Shino, close quarters combat was **NOT** an option. If what he'd heard was right, then there was no telling how many bugs the stoic ninja had in his body or if there was only one type in there as opposed to many different varieties. However, a distanced assault would also be difficult since the Aburame boy's bugs fed on chakra. While he didn't know whether or not they could eat fire chakra or anything like that he was wary of finding out the hard way. Something unexpected would need to be employed here.

Gaara and his cousin Sasuke would be the powerhouses to beat since both of them had a sizeable advantage over him. He'd gotten a pretty good idea of what the creepy Sand ninja could do when Rock Lee had fought him and, quite frankly, it scared the ever lovin' shit out of him. Sand that automatically intercepted physical assaults before they reached the one foot mark from the redhead's body. Sand that could be pressed against the skin, disguised as normal flesh, and absorbed the bulk of any physical blow. Sand techniques that could shatter stone and take virtually any form imaginable. Add to that the flip-flops the creepy kid caused within him whenever that power was put to use and he did not want to have to fight the boy unless he had to. With any luck his cousin Sasuke would find some way to deal with the freak and he would only have to worry about fighting another Uchiha in his fourth match. If that did not prove to be the case, he would have to think up a three or four move strategy that would simply overpower whatever defenses the headcase kid could bring to bear. The problem with that would be the fact that it'd leave him a weak mess in dire need of chakra replenishment. He'd have to be **absolutely** certain that his strategy would defeat his foe. Anything less would be seriously perilous, if not fatal. As for his cousin, well, that too would require using techniques that his relative was too young to have even heard of much less know how to effectively counter. He would also have to have a great many of them on hand since Sasuke would no doubt be using his Sharingan to its fullest during the match and that included its ability to copy jutsu. Something sneaky would have to be dreamt up and perfected.

For Naruto or Ahou-sama, the same sort of preparations would have to be made since both represented dangerous foes that underestimating would lead to his defeat. In the case of Naruto, the kid had chakra by the bucketful if he could perform the Kage Bunshin no jutsu to create so many shadow clones. Add to that the kid's sheer determination to become Hokage and he'd probably have to beat the kid silly to make sure he stayed down. Also the kid was an esteemed member of the village prankster society and that meant that expecting the unexpected wouldn't just be good advice but a necessity. Flexibility, adaptability and lightning fast reflexes would be required if he was to keep pace with whatever the noisy ninja decided to throw at him. As for Ahou-sama… that was going to be the fight he'd have to send a few prayers to the Almighty for if he wanted to come out victorious in. Three hundred and sixty degree sight, the ability to perceive the chakra pathways and mess with them, and a deadly taijutsu style that could wipe him out with only a few blows. Long distance was definitely mandatory in this case, no matter how much he might like to pound that arrogant ass' head into the ground. Evasive measures would also be necessary since he didn't want to risk the idiot getting close enough to mess with his tenketsus. If Lord Moron managed that the fight would be pretty much over and done with since without chakra he'd barely be able to move much less use any effective techniques. There had to be a way he could score some serious hits on the prick! How though! How?!

It was then that he heard a familiar voice cut through the air and reach his ears. It was a voice crying out in frustration and anger with a little bit of annoyance thrown in for flavor. He barely heard it over the sounds of the waterfall but hear it he did and out of curiosity he moved over to the edge of the cliff that the water spilled over to see what was causing Uzumaki Naturo to be throwing a fit. Activating his Sharingan to enhance his sight, he peered down to a small secondary river to the left of the main one that the waterfall fed he could use the loud blonde arguing with an older guy that had long white hair who was dressed in green and brown clothes. He could see that the man was a ninja just from the chakra circulating through the man's body since even if it wasn't in use at the time or building in preparation for a technique he'd bet a crate of Twinkies the guy was Jounin or higher. He was curious since the remnants of his Halloween memories were buzzing with recognition concerning the man but, no matter how hard he tried to come up with a name, it all eluded him. Whoever the man was, he had to be pretty big news to get this sort of reaction out of his Halloween inheritance. Deciding that this warranted a closer look he slipped down off the cliff, employing every stealth technique he knew to conceal his approach, and came to a rest a hundred yards from the duo. With a little effort, he channeled a little chakra to his ears in order to enhance what they could pick up while at the same time keeping it low enough that he wouldn't be picked up he listen in on the conversation.

Apparently the older man, who Naruto kept calling Ero-Sennin, was trying to teach the noisy ninja a technique that the Genin could use in the coming final matches. They never mentioned it by name but it apparently had something to do with frogs since Naruto kept saying that his latest try at the jutsu had produced something that had hind legs. Ero-Sennin, though, wasn't giving the kid any credit for it, saying that the young ninja had no talent whatsoever. While he did think that the old man wasn't giving the noisy ninja enough credit, he supposed that the teacher would know better than the student if any progress was being made. It was three minutes later that he got his first glimpse of the technique in question when he watched Naruto attempt to perform it again.

_Boar, Dog Bird, Monkey, Ram!_ He thought as he watched the hand seals being formed before watching the Uzumaki kid slam his open hand onto the ground.

He caught a brief glimpse of a circle with nine lines shooting outward from the center before the expansion of smoke appeared clouding his sight. When it cleared and Naruto removed his hand from the ground he could see what was causing Ero-Sennin to berate the young ninja so much. Wiggling around with hind legs moving as though the thing was in water was a tadpole with odd dots on its body. He presumed that the technique was set to be considered a success when the user managed to summon a **fully formed** frog rather than what the Uzumaki kid had just done. It was when he reviewed his own words that his Halloween inheritance filled in the blanks letting him know precisely what the technique was.

Kuchiyose no Jutsu.

A technique that could allow a ninja to summon sentient animals and tools at any time so long as they used their own blood, performed the hand seals and in the case of the sentient animals had a contract with the other dimensional beings. It was a C-ranked technique that normally one had to be a Chuunin in order to perform competently since it required quite a bit of chakra in order to execute correctly. Not as much as that fire ninjutsu he'd used on the grass ninja but still enough that only exceptional genin could even consider attempting it successfully. He hoped that the old man actually believed that Naruto could do this because he'd hate to see the energetic kid waste his time practicing a technique he wouldn't be able to use in the final matches.

_Hmmm…I wonder._ He thought as he considered what he was seeing before him.

&


	14. A Journey of a Thousand Steps or so

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. It is the rightful property of the original creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever.

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_**Konoha Library, Special Techniques Section, The Next Day, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Hmmm. Looks like the summoning technique is a variation on that move Ayeka taught me for sealing weapons away. _He thought as he went over the scrolls that explained the Kuchiyose no Jutsu, _Just instead of kunai or explosive tags, I summon a sentient animal trained as a ninja. Looks like there are as many different types of summons as there are creatures native to this region of the world._

Looking at them all, he tried to decide which one would be best for someone like him. Toads were off right from the beginning since he didn't feel like stealing Naruto's thunder and there was no way in **HELL** he was going to go with snake summons after meeting Orochimaru. Slugs were also out of the question, merely because they creeped him out. The dogs reminded him a bit too much of the primal hyena, the residue of which was still having him crave his steak rare, so they were not for him either. He had to choose one not just for the sort of power they had but also the numerous other ways they could help him. Every animal had their strong suits and their weak points. Going down the list of summoned creatures one by one, he tried to find one that he both liked just on appearance alone and approved of their various strengths. Narrowing down the criteria like that, though, wasn't helping much though because there were numerous animals still remaining after he'd eliminated those he didn't like. He needed something to trim it down even further. Some sign that one of these animals was the one for him.

"SCREEEECCCHHHH!"

"What the--!?" Came the voice of the female librarian who had been sitting at her desk near the entrance of the library.

"Sonuvabitch!!" Cried some guy whose voice he didn't recognize at all.

Turning to see what the commotion was about, he had managed to get only halfway before a familiar feeling touched his mind, answering his question and making him sigh in annoyance at the same time. He'd let the eagle hawk do as she pleased for most of his training so far as he had yet to decide on an actual course of action or strategy concerning how he wanted to get stronger. However, after the fight with Hayate, he should have known Ava'd seek him out sooner or later either to get payback for the pain he might have unintentionally sent to her or bug him for food. Landing on the table in front of him, she screeched loudly in his face before sending him images of her nearly falling from the sky two nights ago while in some forest. Then she showed him images of trying to get into the hospital to tell him off then only to get into a squabble with one of the messenger eagle hawks Konoha used, resulting in her being chased throughout the area before finally losing her pursuer. The final image was of being chased by some dog with an eyepatch just before flying in here and he thought that perhaps it was an Inuzuka dog. Hana's mutts had been eyeing Ava for a while now, despite his request to Hana to tell them to stop. She was **NOT** in a good mood!

"Yeah! Yeah! It's not like I planned on getting the crap kicked out of me that night!" He yelled back at her as her telepathic messages were starting to give him a headache, "Now quit it before I decide I need a new pillow more than I need a partner like you!"

This was apparently the wrong thing to say to her because not only did the telepathic transmissions **increase,** but she added some eagle screeching to the mix, filling the air with noise. Sadly, such behavior was unacceptable in a library and since no one would hold a bird responsible for the noise, it meant that it was him that was getting the glares from the other patrons of the building of learning. He knew that if he didn't do something soon to quiet her down he'd never be let into this place again so he decided to do something that would leave his pocket book crying for mercy later.

_Listen!! If you shut up right now and not cause me any more grief I'll buy you five rabbits just as soon as I'm done here. Okay!? _He asked her mentally hoping that her obsession with food would be enough to squash her anger at him.

Like flipping a light switch, the screeching stopped as did the telepathic messages though he did catch a bit of smug satisfaction that made him wonder if the entire thing had been an act. He wouldn't put it past the feather brain and it made him wonder if this was what it'd be like to be a parent trying to match wits with particularly sneaky kids. It was then, with that line of thought, that he remembered something he hadn't thought of in weeks but suddenly seemed so important that he immediately tried to recall as much as he could.

Love and hate over a ninja hold sway,

Drawing them into darkness and clouding a ninja's way;

Truth, however, can be cleansing like spring weather,

Seek it, my son, where the air meets a feather

It was the poem that had been a part of the letter that his mother had left for him with the family lawyer to be given to him three months after her death. He hadn't thought much of it at the time, never much liking riddles, but now as he considered what sort of summoning creature he wanted to forge a contract with it all suddenly clicked into place. Looking back to the scroll that contained the list of known summoning animals, it took him three passes over the list before he finally found eagle hawks. It wasn't that he had a lousy ability to read but rather because whoever had written the scroll had written it down just as his pen or whatever had gone dry and hadn't bothered to make the entry more readable. Now that he'd found it, he immediately began to read what he could of it with special emphasis on the details since over a year of researching as a Scooby had taught him the importance of the details. Too bad all he got was the name of another scroll he needed to get in order to get the information on eagle hawk summoning. He didn't have far to go, though, twelve steps to the stacks and then twelve back, and with the scroll in hand he unrolled it to learn what he had to learn. The first thing he noticed was that not many ninja of note had tried and/or succeeded in acquiring the ninja eagle hawk's aid through a contract. Was it that hard to get or were there simply too few ninjas who had acquired it that had gone on to become worthy enough to have their names put into the scroll? Whatever!

The first thing he learned was that the first step to establishing a contract with the ninja eagle hawks required that he travel to the top of the tallest mountain in the Country of Fire. There he would have to use specially prepared ink to form six sets of symbols in order to form a place where beings from this world could communicate as well as interact with the dimensions where the ninja animals resided. It'd have to be big, at least a hundred and fifty yards in terms of the radius, since there stood a good chance that he'd be subjected to some sort of test to prove his worthiness. It was a must that you had to somehow earn the respect of the creatures you were summoning or show your respect for them and that would be done through some kind of test. Hopefully it wouldn't be a written because Lord knew he was so bad at them, he pissed off the people who were in charge of giving them. Oh, he still passed (somehow!), but when the test you're given is supposed to be a cake walk and still only passed by a few percentile points; it seriously made the teachers wonder why he was in their class. Not that physical tests were much easier for him but if there was one benefit to having to do all the household chores in the Harris household, it made him just as fit as anyone in school. That meant that while not jock material in terms of sports, he did great in shop class and (he'd never admit this to anyone) he did okay in the cooking classes as well. The former came from the fact that he had to often fix things that his parents were too cheap to replace when needed and the latter was from when he wanted something to eat that didn't come from a wrapper.

_Those points will work for me, though._ He thought as he jotted down the directions to where he needed to go, _Resourcefulness and determination. Those two things can get you past just about anything._

Writing down the materials he would need, from the scroll to the ink to the incense, he carefully rolled up all the scrolls he'd taken off the shelves and put them back. It wouldn't do to piss off the library staff any more than he already had since he might have to come back sometime before the final matches began. Folding the piece of parchment he'd put his notes on, he tucked it into his equipment pouch and immediately set out to gather what he needed. He only had a little over three weeks left before the main matches began and it was probably going to take him quite a bit of time to get to the mountain, do what he needed to do and then get back to Konoha.

First up was the scroll he would need in order to form the contract with the ninja eagle hawks. It couldn't be one of the smaller ones since they were usually used for temporary reasons and he wanted one that could be used to pass down the technique to his kids. It didn't take long for him to find a shop that sold scrolls, his past trips through Konoha had familiarized himself with the layout, and once he had it was just a matter of telling the old man what he needed. The fact that he needed a scroll wasn't all that surprising to the shop owner but the fact that he wanted a large one and told the guy he wanted it for the purpose of forming a contract with a summoning creature did. The elderly gentleman told him that usually only chuunins or jounins attempted to form contracts with the summoning animals because the trials involved were quite difficult. He told the shop keeper that he knew this but wanted to try anyway, leaving the man of advanced years to simply shake his head before going to the rear of the shop to get the required scroll. It was a big one to be sure, it was about the size of a large log, and it would stretch from his butt to the top of his head once strapped to his back, but it'd be perfect for his needs. As he was leaving the shop keeper asked what ninja animal he was seeking to form a contract with and he answered 'eagle hawk'.

The look on the shop keeper's face was easily enough to make him laugh out loud.

Next up came the ink he'd be using to draw the symbols needed to create the area where he'd enter into negotiations with the ninja hawks. When he entered the shop, there were a wide variety of ink bottles on the shelf as well as various other objects that could be used along with the ink. However what confused him was the sheer number of inks that existed since he pretty much thought ink was ink and there was no real difference between any two of them. He told the shop lady that and **BOY** wasn't that a mistake! Thanks to that ill chosen comment, he spent the next hour enduring a lecture from the she-bitch on the finer points of ink making and how each had a unique quality that made it easy to tell them apart. By the time the talking was over with, he had the precise amount of ink he needed for the task ahead of him. The woman had actually asked for every bit of information he had on what he wanted to do, where it would be done and even trivial things like how big the symbols would be. By the time he had explained everything as much as he could, she had for him an ink that was most suitable for writing on rough mountain surfaces and ink that would endure for a long time on the scroll he'd just purchased. From the way she was talking, he'd bet a full week without Twinkies that the woman knew how to calculate the precise amount of ink for any occasion down to the sixth decimal point and also how to make every ink in existence from memory.

Anal probably barely covered how she thought.

In any case, he was quite happy to get out of the shop before she got it into her head that she needed to give him the entire lecture all over again. He'd heard lectures from his mother, his step-father, from Snyder and a dozen different people during the course of his life. He was not going to stick around for another round of lecturing from someone he'd only just met today and didn't really care to get to know better. Leaving the ink shop, he went to the next spot on his list and that was the shop that sold the herbs that, thankfully, had the remainder of what he needed for the trip. In this case though he'd lucked out and the person behind the counter turned out to be the son of the person who owned the place. The teen looked bored out of his mind and wanted to be anyplace but where he was so the odds of getting lectured were non-existent. Walking from shelf to shelf he picked out what he'd need while being careful not to make a mess in the process. Some of the stuff stank to high heaven while others had his stomachs doing a back flip each time he took a whiff. Still, it was necessary if he was going to establish a connection with the world of the ninja eagle hawks.

With his shopping trip done, all he needed to do was head back to his room at Anko-sensei's place to gather the right clothes for his trip and what food he had bought for himself. He was glad that he'd set aside some food for the trip back to Sunnydale because he was going to need every bit of it for his trip to the mountains. Sure, he hadn't known when he'd be heading back but he definitely didn't want to run into issues on the way back so he'd made sure to buy good that'd last a long time without going bad. Sure, some of it tasted like cardboard but he wasn't in a position to argue given what funds he had available. Once he had what he needed from the apartment, he'd head out for the mountain and seek out its peak. Once there, he would follow the instructions he'd copied from the scroll in the library to the letter and hopefully convince the ninja eagle hawks to enter into a contract with him. He would use his honesty and his respect for them as his tools in order to gain their support. Once that was done, he'd practice the summoning on his way back to Konoha so that by the time he arrived, he'd be able to pull it off at the drop of a hat. If he had any time left before the final matches, he'd see if there was anything else he could do to increase his odds of going all the way but if not he'd focus on R&R to build up his strength.

_I'll need every ounce of chakra I can squeeze out if I want to win every match._ He thought as he began to leave the market district of Konoha, _Maybe even bring a stash of snacks with me to refuel after each match. I'd have to be careful not to bring anything that might have me running to…_

It was then that he spotted a shop that triggered a memory from the preliminary matches at the tower. He saw a tool that had allowed one of the Genin to become quite the contender and wondered if it could do the same for him if he used it. It certainly couldn't hurt and if he went to the ninja who'd used them before he just might be able to get them to instruct him on how to use it properly. So with his decision made he entered one final shop to get what he would need to become strong enough to show everyone just what sort of ninja he was and could be in time.

He'd show them his strength no matter what!

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_**Inuzuka Household, Residential District of Konoha, An Hour and a Half Later, Hana's P.O.V**_

"Have a good day! Be sure to follow those instructions I gave you." Hana said to the departing wife of the Fire Nation's feudal lord, "It should fix Tora-chan right up."

"I most definitely will! I would do anything for my Tora-chan!" The overweight woman declared as she carried her frantic pet away, "Have a fine day young lady!"

Seeing the woman who loved food a little too much walk away, she had to wonder if it would've been more compassionate of her to simply put the cat to sleep rather than give it back. Only once she got back inside she let the mask of a cheerful veterinarian fall away to reveal her true self that feverantly wished that she never had to see that woman again. Growling a bit and letting some colorful language fall from her lips since she was the only person in the room aside from the other employees, she went to look and see who would be next to visit the clinic today. She knew that there were a few more but none of the names she could recall really stood out to her, so hopefully that meant that they were either good people or at least more tolerable than that bag of blubber that just left. If that woman had **ever** been beautiful enough to be called pretty, she must have seriously let herself go over the years to get that obese. What sort of woman got so addicted to fattening foods that she let herself become **that**?

_It doesn't matter, though._ She thought as she took a deep breath to disperse the negative emotions she was feeling, _Can't let her mess up my entire day or Mom will start mouthing off to me about being 'professional' and 'not letting my emotions get to me'. No THANKS!_

Getting behind the counter, she began to flip through the list of appointments before using a pen to draw an X over the one she'd just had with the wife of the Fire Nation's feudal lord. One by one she looked over the ones that were left for the day and, much to her disgust, she found that in about two hours that old witch Utatane Koharu was bringing in her mutt. The flea bag had the same temperament as its bitch of a master and the fact that the old hag thought so much of herself made interacting with her a real pain in the ass. She'd give just about anything to get out of that appointment but her mother was serious about her learning everything there was to know about caring for animals. No doubt her mom was planning on having her inherit the family business down the line and wanted to make sure that her successor was at least as good as she was. She loved her mother, she'd die to keep the woman safe, but she was **NOT** going to live the rest of her life administrating this madhouse for all the money in the world. Quite frankly, she'd probably murder half the staff in the first year alone with all the stress she'd be under and then terrorize the remaining half over the course of her remaining years before finally granting them peace by retiring. Personally, she wanted to spend more of her time in the field like the legendary Tsunade, a female ninja who was an even mix of healer as well as ass kicker, but she'd never tell anyone that out loud. If she did, then she'd be just like all the other kunoichi and if there was one thing she prided herself on it was standing out from the crowd. She didn't want anyone to have any trouble picking her out of the crowd or recognizing her name and that was the reason she acted as she did. She acted fearless because those who were afraid were seen as weak. She **refused** to be weak. She talked big because she wanted to be seen as confident. Those who lacked confidence hesitated and were often the first to be killed. She would **not** be killed that easily. She mocked others she knew to motivate them to become stronger if only for the purpose of shutting her up. She **hated** losing the people she cared about.

Not the best reasons, but they worked for her.

Hearing the familiar jingling of the bell hanging over the door, she looked up, wondering who it could be considering that the next patient wasn't due to arrive for another hour. She was half curious and half annoyed to find out that it was her Uchiha teammate and his animal partner Ava (who her partners were asking to be their new chew toy) rather than a paying customer. While she was faintly interested into verbally sparring with the so-called field leader of Team Anko, since it sounded like a great way to improve her mood, she had to wonder why he was here. She hoped that it didn't have anything to do with that obnoxious bird of his because she had heard tales from the rest of mom's people about how troublesome the beak brain was. If she had to deal with that feather duster along with that old hag advisor, she would need to break out the really strong stuff by the end of the day.

"What do you want now, Wannabe?" She asked, trying to make it sound like she'd pound him flat if his reason wasn't good enough.

"Well… um… I've figured out a way to give myself an edge during the final matches but it turns out I need another person to help me out with it." Xander replied sounding moderately uncomfortable about what he was about to ask of her, "I was thinking of forming a contract with a summoning animal but…well…"

"But you need someone to act as both an anchor to this world as well as a witness for it all. Why me? I'm sure that gold digger Ayeka would **love** to spend some time with you!" She asked, knowing all too well how much her blonde teammate would like an opportunity to work her magic on her future husband.

He let out a groan of dread at the images that possibility brought out and this told her that while the guy might think of Ms. Easy Legs as a friend, the thought of her marrying him still sent shivers of fear up his spine. Not that she blamed him because she could easily come up with a few scary images of what that Mishima girl would want him to do in order to fulfill her dreams of a perfect marriage. Expensive clothes, classes in etiquette as well as protocol and mandatory attendance for **every** party where nobles gathered to talk of pompous things that didn't matter one bit. If she was ever forced to attend one of those parties, there'd be nothing but blood on the walls and internal organs on the floor by the time she was escorted out by a full ANBU squad. She couldn't stand those arrogant asses, thinking themselves so important, and she thanked her lucky stars every night that the Inuzuka clan wasn't high enough up the society ladder that they needed to attend such parties. That was why when she eventually found someone she liked, she'd make sure that that man was someone of equal class rather than some high and mighty nobleman. That way she would only have to deal with things she already knew how to handle rather than have upper class troubles thrown on her back with everything else. Fortunately she was still young enough that she had time to find a guy that was up to her standards because, at the moment, there was really no one that she'd care to call husband down the road.

"I need someone that won't spend all their time trying to shove her tongue down my throat and keep me focused on my training." Explained the Uchiha as he adjusted his backpack, "I need to be a lot stronger and faster by the time the final matches start and I somehow doubt that playing tonsil hockey is going to help."

Now that she thought about it, it did look like he was planning on doing some serious training along with signing a contract with one of the summoning animals of the region. It was a bit ambitious in her mind, considering how difficult it was to get those holier-than-thou animal bosses to agree to such an arrangement. Depending on which animal you went after, they could want anything from a cooked meal to the soul of the ninja upon their death. That made her curious.

"Which animal are you planning on contracting? A little mouse maybe? That sounds like something you could handle." She said with a smirk that made it clear what her thoughts on his chances were of successfully getting a contract signed.

"Nope. I figured I'd keep this bird theme going and meet with the ninja eagle hawks." Xander replied with a smile that spoke of confidence, "They're fast, deadly and might just be able to help me fix Ava's dysfunctional attitude a bit."

The guy had to be a masochist with the way he pushed his avian ally's buttons like that because, no sooner had his words left his mouth, the bird bit his ear and then screeched in it for good measure. However what had her attention the most was his answer, his choice for a summoning animal, because in her family there were stories about those who sought to make a deal with such beings. There were some that were easy and any ninja out of the academy could manage and those were generally safer for first timers. Then there were those that no one short of experienced Chuunin should attempt to bargain with because those animals were crafty to the point of tricking the ninja into an unfavorable deal that benefited them more than the shinobi. Lastly there were the summoning creatures that no one below Jounin should consider approaching because it would only take one mistake during negotiations to bring about a permanent end to the human's life. Of these three levels of summoning animals, the eagle hawks ranked just below what only a Jounin level ninja would be capable of handling on his or her own. From what she recalled from the stories her mother had told her once, the ninja eagle hawks were a temperamental bunch that tended to look down on everyone else while mouthing off about how good they were.

Was she wrong?

Was Uchiha Xander suicidal rather than masochistic?

"A little full of yourself, aren't ya, Wannabe?" She asked with a bit of contemptuous warning in her tone, "Those eagle hawk ninjas aren't exactly people friendly from what I hear. The last ninja that tried to get them to deal came back without an arm and had to find a new line of work."

"Yeah? Well how many Uchiha have gone after these fine feathered folk?" Xander asked, sounding like he believed the answer to be either few or none, "I'll be training all the way there so by the time I reach them, my strength and my Sharingan should be enough to handle whatever they have to throw at me."

She had to fight to roll her eyes at that statement. It was **SO** typical of the elite ninja clans that they thought the abilities or techniques attached only to their clan would see them through any difficulties. Hyuuga, Uchiha, Aburame and so many others took such pride in their Kekkei Genkai or the techniques known only to their clans that it made them arrogant. She'd seen a few examples of this in her own clan but had done her best to not become complacent herself and she did this by regularly trying to find new ways to become stronger. She was even willing to learn techniques that were not common for an Inuzuka to know just so she'd have an ace up her sleeve to be used in a truly unfavorable situation. Naturally she tried to do this where no one would catch her in the act, kami forbid they witness some of her more spectacular screw ups, but for the most part she was fairly pleased by her progress. She'd even had a technique she'd planned on using in the final matches of the Chuunin Exam but, thanks to that lazy ass Shikamaru, she'd gotten eliminated. What a cheesy technique! Damn Kagemane no Jutsu! In any case, it was pure arrogance that Wannabe though that some quick training and his bloody Sharingan would be enough to get those snooty eagle hawk ninjas to bow down and sign on the dotted line.

She was concerned he'd get himself killed or at least severely beat up if someone didn't set him straight soon, so she decided to do it in her own unique style.

"So then why are you here instead of showing those feather dusters what the **GREAT** and **POWERFUL** Uchiha Xander is made of?" She asked, making it clear she thought he was too full of himself.

"Well…um…the scroll in the library gave me directions to where I need to go for this…it's just…well...the guy who wrote the scroll gave his directions in terms of specific places or historical locations." Wannabe replied, looking like he wanted to have a few words with the scroll writer, "Thing is…I don't know where the hell any of these places are!"

He didn't know where to go.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

A guy who had done nothing but act like he was just as good as an academy couldn't find the place he really wanted because he wasn't from around here. Better yet, he was coming to **her** for help! Heheheheheh! She could get some serious fun out of this if she played her cards right and even better, she now had a way out of the afternoon appointments.

"Well, I **suppose** that as your teammate, I **should** help you out with your training for the final matches." She said mockingly, sounding like was taking his situation seriously, "Of course you are going to owe me **BIG** for this when we get back! Right?"

"W-what exactly am I going to owe you?" Wannabe asked, sounding like he was dreading the answer to that question.

That would actually take something thinking and it was way too much fun to leave him wondering what sort of price tag she'd put on this sort of help, so there was only one way she could reply.

"That's for me to know and you to have nightmares about!" She said with a feral grin that definitely had the desired effect on the Uchiha, "Give me a bit to get ready and we'll head off so you can meet with your self-important feather duster friends."

Without further delay she left Wannabe in the clinic waiting area while she sought out her mother to tell her that she had to take off and help her teammate prepare for the final matches of the Chuunin Exam. There were precious few things that could get her mother to let her off work and, thankfully, her duties to Team Anko was one of the ones that almost always worked. The only reason it was 'almost' instead of 'always' was because she **might** have used her team as an excuse to go to a local bar to have a blast and it **might** have ended with a brawl that got her in trouble. After that her mother had gotten all suspicious and had made it mandatory to have Anko-sensei write a confirmation note to be brought home after the team activity had concluded. Being an Inuzuka, her mother's sharp nose was easily able to tell what ink was used in the note as well as roughly how long ago the note had been written. Add to that the fact that her mother had a good idea of what Anko's handwriting was like and that made writing up a fake note impossible. She'd asked a couple of times if Anko would write her up a note whenever she wanted but that had been put down because of that stick in the mud, Kurenai Yuhi. The so-called Mistress of Genjutsu was also a stickler for the rules, or at least not going further than bending them, so writing fake notes to trick a student's mother was apparently unacceptable behavior.

Now, though, she had a perfectly acceptable reason for ditching work and a witness who could vouch for her to her mother.

Let someone else deal with that old hag Utatane for a change!

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_**Offices for Squad Jounin, Two Hours Later, Ayeka's P.O.V**_

_Where could my beloved Xander-sama be?_ Ayeka thought as she proceeded to where she'd learned Anko-sensei was, _The librarian said he left over three hours ago!_

It had been the purpose of her entire day to help her future husband prepare for the final matches that would take place in a little over three weeks. She had spent the entire previous day trying to figure out what techniques would be most effective against his potential opponents or tactics that would minimize the potency of their revealed techniques. She had three whole scrolls full of ideas that would guarantee that Xander-sama made it at least as far as the final match against whoever possessed the strength to meet him there. Since the majority of the finalists were Konoha ninja, it was easy to get information on them and, with that, she only needed to consider her future husband's skills to come up with the perfect plan to ensure his success. Then, when he emerged the top winner of the entire Chuunin Exam, he would be so grateful for her help he'd gladly announce to the entire village that she was his soulmate! They would go to the most upper class restaurant in the entire village where the musicians would perform romantic melodies for them so that they could take the dance floor passionately showing their love for each other with their eyes.

WHAM!

Rubbing her face to sooth the pain of accidently walking into a wall she suddenly realized that there might be some damage to her perfect face. Damage that could **ruin** her chances with Xander-sama!! Reaching into her equipment pouch, she brought out her compact mirror and quickly opened it to inspect her face for possible damage. Checking the five primary angles of appearance, she was relieved to find out that aside from some smudged make up (something that was easily taken care of), there were no bruises or cuts to be seen at all. Finishing her touching up of her face, she got to her feet and resumed heading towards where her Jounin teacher was no doubt bored out of her mind with paperwork. It was a known fact to just about everyone in Konoha that the quickest way to get Mitarashi Anko to cave was to threaten her with lots of paperwork. Much like most of the young ninjas of Chuunin level or lower, they all thought that the life of a ninja was one filled with excitement and adventure at every turn. The truth of the matter was that kicking ass and taking names was just part of a ninja's life with the rest of it being menial labor and absurd amounts of paperwork that you just **had** to do. Needless to say, this did not sit well with Anko most of the time, causing her to rant about a conspiracy against her having fun or asking what she'd done in a past life to deserve the torture that was paperwork.

That was yet another reason she wanted to marry into a noble household.

If she married into a noble clan, she could delegate all but the most important paperwork to subordinates so she could focus on all the benefits of being Lady Uchiha.

Not the least of which was enjoying some 'quality time' with Xander-sama!

She could still remember the sight of him coming to her rescue in a pair of boxer shorts and nothing else. What A **body!** Nothing but hard chiseled muscles and, thanks to the tent, she had a pretty good idea of what that fine young man was packing. Hoooo-BABY! She couldn't help but chuckle gleefully at the images her mind was coming up with and it made her all the more impatient for the wedding to arrive. Still, she could wait for a little while, scratching the itch with flirting as well as foreplay, and when it came, it would be the most wonderful day of her life, one where her dream will have come true and she could truly say that she was satisfied.

Turning into the office, she wiped the suspicious smile off her face so as not to get any weird looks, she was unsurprised to see a trashcan filled with dango trays and empty drink cans. While it didn't make doing paperwork any more enjoyable for Anko-sensei, it did keep her somewhat pacified letting the rest of the Jounin teachers work undisturbed. Judging by the remaining cans and trays on the desk, it'd probably be a good idea to have some academy brat go for refills of both sometime in the next hour or two. Why wasn't she offering to get the refills? Obviously it was because such a task was beneath the future Lady Uchiha and more suitable for some pintsized weakling who could not hope to stand against her ninja prowess.

"Anko-sensei? Have you seen Xander-sama?" She asked, approaching the desk with a little caution since she didn't know the older woman's mood completely.

"Does it **look** like I've seen him!?!" Anko exclaimed, gesturing with exasperation at paperwork both completed and yet to be done, "I haven't seen anything except black and white since I got here this morning!! I swear those old fossils on the village council are trying to kill me with all this tedious paperwork!!"

Obviously things were not going well for her sensei.

Fortunately the purple haired woman seemed to realize she was yelling at the wrong person and, with a deep breath, did her best to let her more violent tendencies fade away.

"Sorry, Ayeka. I didn't mean to take out my own problems on you." Anko-sensei said while putting down her brush, "The last I heard of Xander-kun, he was finishing up his research at the library. Have you checked there?"

"It was the first place I looked but they said he left there over three hours ago." She replied getting a little annoyed at how things were going, "I've checked the training grounds as well as Ichiraku Ramen, but he hasn't been there either."

"Hmmmmm. That is odd." Anko-sensei stated with the elimination of the most likely places to find the American Uchiha, "Well, if he was researching the summoning technique, then maybe he's already gone off to practice somewhere out of the way."

"Then why didn't he ask me to come along? Why didn't he wait for me!?" She asked, unable to understand why the love of her life would undertake such training without her along for support.

She knew that her initial forwardness had intimidated the young Uchiha and that was why she had done what she could to tone it down a little. A difficult task, considering that she didn't want to lose the chance to secure his heart to some other woman undeserving woman. Nevertheless, she had thought things had been going pretty good all things considered and she had loved the way he had shown his confidence in her during the preliminary matches. It had made her heart flutter to know that despite her earlier mistakes, he truly did have faith in her abilities and she'd known right then that she'd taken an important first step. A few more like those and she would be the only woman in Xander-sama's heart, leaving all others in the dust.

Hearing the sounds of footsteps approaching, she turned and found the producer of said footsteps to be the main scroll vendor in the marketplace of Konoha. There were others but whenever someone inquired where the best place to buy scrolls from was, it was always this man's shop that ninja's recommended. She herself had gone there a few times when she needed storage scrolls or paper for explosive tags and the man always had what she needed in stock.

"Yes, Takeda-san? Is something the matter?" Anko-sensei asked, sounding puzzled at the man's presence.

"Well…maybe. You're the Jounin teacher for that new Uchiha kid, right?" He asked, sounding unsure if talking to Anko was a good idea.

"Yes, he is. Have you seen him today?" Anko asked, sounding interested in finding out what her subordinate was up to.

"Well, he came by my shop earlier today and asked for one of my special scrolls for forming a familial contract with one of the summoning creatures. It was a big one too." Mr. Takeda replied, sounding more unsure by the moment about his choice to visit this room, "I asked him on his way out what summoning creature he was going to enter into a contract with and he told me it was…um…"

"Quit beating around the bush, Tekeda! What animal ninja clan did he say he was going to form a contract with?" Anko asked, sounding like he was losing her patience with the old man.

"The eagle hawk clan, Anko-san." Mr. Takeda replied quickly, knowing it wouldn't be smart to antagonize the Jounin, given the mood the paperwork currently had her in.

"WHAT!?!" Exclaimed both her and Anko-sensei in perfect synch with one another.

The eagle hawk clan was considered one of the more powerful summons that a person could try to enter into a contract with and, usually, no ninja with any true intelligence would try to enter into an agreement with those animals until they'd been a Chuunin for a few years. While it was true that, as with normal birds, you could gain an edge over them by trapping them on the ground or underground where they wouldn't be able to maneuver well but it trick was getting them there. While it was not **impossible** to gain a contract from the eagle hawk clan, almost no one had managed a familial contract with them and definitely not in recent years. The reason for this was quite simple and easy to understand.

Only one out of every thirty ninja managed to get a temporary summoning scroll out of the eagle hawk clan.

One out of five hundred had been known to get a familial contract from them.

Bottom line.

Those that were rejected for both types of scrolls barely made it back in one piece.

"HE TOLD YOU HE WAS GOING TO SEE **THEM** AND YOU DIDN'T STOP HIM!?!" She yelled in disbelief at how bad things had gone.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU INFORM ME IMMEDIATELY!?!" Anko bellowed, getting up from her desk so fast she wound up knocking a stack of papers to the ground.

"I…I thought you knew, Anko-san!" Mr. Takeda replied wondering just how he was going to get out of his present mess, "I mean, I know that Asuma-san and Kurenai-san are working with their Genin so I thought you okayed it! If I'd known he was doing it on his own, I would've told you right away! Really!"

"GET. OUT." Anko-sensei growled out and, like the smart person Takeda-san was, he ran out of the room like he had ten S-class rogue ninja after him.

It was a terrible situation and made worse by the fact that she didn't know where someone needed to go to communicate with the eagle hawk clan needed to go. She had never really considered learning the summoning jutsu beyond her weapon storage scrolls, since she'd thought that it'd be too much of a burden to deal with mouthy animals. It was hard enough learning to deal with bothersome teammates without adding additional annoyances to the mix. Turning around, she knew precisely where she needed to go. She would go to the library and look at the same scrolls as Xander had. They would give her the location she should head to and with a little effort on her part she should have no trouble catching up to her future husband. She hadn't decided yet whether or not she was going to tell him off for leaving her behind, but she was pretty sure that by the time she saw him again, she'd have made her decision. However, just as she was about to reach the doorframe, another form stepped in front of her, causing her to slam on the brakes in order to ensure that she didn't collide with the person. Looking up to see who it was, she was surprised to see that it was Hana's mother, Inuzuka Tsume, and the woman looked oddly annoyed.

Not good.

After all, if the stories were true, this was the woman who managed to scare off her own husband and, considering the guy had stuck around long around enough to have to kids with her, that was saying something.

"Tsume-chan? What are you doing here?" Anko-sensei asked, obviously not expecting the feral woman to show up anytime soon.

"I just wanted to check with you and see if that daughter of mine really has set out on some training exercise with that Uchiha kid." Tsume replied, looking about the room briefly before returning her gaze to the Jounin in charge of teaching the eldest of her children, "She was talkin' way too polite to me before she left an hour and a half ago."

"Well, I just found out that Xander-kun's gone to enter into a familial contract with a summoning animal, but this is the first I've heard about Hana going with him." Anko-sensei replied, sounding more puzzled by the minute, "Why would she be going with him? I mean, sure, they can work together but since Xander's the only one that's going to compete in the final matches, why would she want to help him with his training?"

With that question, her mind went through scenario after scenario to try to determine the most likely reason why her dog-breath teammate would voluntarily help someone she detested with his training. Sure, if Anko-sensei got on mutt girl's case or gave her 'the look', she'd work with Xander-sama for some serious training but otherwise the Inuzuka girl couldn't wait to get away from her future husband. According to dog girl, the reason she didn't like the newest Uchiha was mostly because he was being given so much special treatment when others had worked their way up through the academy to earn the same rights and privileges. For some nobody to come out of nowhere and have it all handed to him on a platter was an insult to true, hard-working ninja. At least that was the reason Hana gave after being pestered about it for half an hour so it was possible it was just total bullshit. Going through every interaction between the Uchiha and dog girl, she tried to figure out what would have given her feral teammate a reason to actually **help** the guy she despised of her own free will.

Ten seconds of thought later, the anvil dropped and two prominent moments popped into her head.

Xander kissing Hana during the gauntlet to see if he stayed on Team Anko.

Hana's unusual concern for the new Uchiha's condition after the fight with Orochimaru.

_NO! I mean, I know what it looked like but she hasn't made any moves towards him at all! _She thought as a surprising possibility took hold of her mind, _Sure, I was going to use her as a means to keep the other whores in the village off __**MY**__ Xander-sama, but when that didn't work I thought I'd just read her wrong!_

Nevertheless it all fit when she used the scenario where Inuzuka Hana actually **did** have more than friendship feelings towards Uchiha Xander as the core theory. The chance to sneak her way into his heart with this training trip must have seemed like a gift from above so of course that mangy mutt would have grabbed onto it with both paws! AAARRRRGGGHH! That **BITCH!** She was not going to sink her claws into the future husband of Mishima Ayeka!

Not if she had anything to say about it!!

"Anko-sensei! Tsume-san! I just remembered I had a little errand I need to do for my mom!" She said as she ran out the door of the room, "See ya!"

With those words she immediately started heading for home in order to pack the things she'd need to squeeze herself into that little training group and keep her stunning good looks intact. She'd show that scheming dog girl what happened when you try to come between her and her future husband.

She'd have that bitch whimpering for mercy by the time she was done!!

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_**Offices for Squad Jounin, Ten Seconds Later, Anko's P.O.V**_

"Now that she's gone, why don't you tell me the real reason why you're here, Tsume-chan." She asked, looking at the current matriarch of the Inuzuka clan, "If you wanted to check on your daughter, you could have easily just called me over the phone or sent Kuromaru."

"Eh, I felt like getting out of the clinic for a little while that's all." Tsume replied nonchalantly before grabbing a stick of dango and scarfing one down.

"Nice try with the dango but I won't be distracted that easily." She said, knowing that the feral woman would have known that she'd get miffed if someone pilfered her snacks, "Now spill or I have Xander-kun take Ava to your clinic for a check up when they get back, whether that feather duster needs one or not."

That made the elder Inuzuka pause for a moment since she no doubt recalled the stink that the bird put up the last time the animal stayed at the Inuzuka clinic. If the rumors were true, at least three members of her staff had threatened to resign if that bothersome beast was put up at the clinic again. She had thought it was a joke until she'd spoken with Tsume a day or two later and found out that every word of it was the truth. The woman had ranted about the 'three slackers' and their lack of 'work ethics' for at least an hour before the she got so mad that she stormed out grumbling about finding something to hit. However, she and the mother of two had been friends since before Hana became a part of Team Anko and she knew that woman was no more eager than her subordinates to care for Ava again. It took a… singular animal to get the top animal caretaker in the village to dread its return and Xander-kun's partner definitely fit the bill. Thus, threatening to send the eagle hawk back to the clinic made for an effective threat, especially since the wild woman couldn't legally refuse to care for the animal.

"Well, I **might** have known that the Uchiha would probably be heading out today and made up the worst appointment schedule possible on purpose. I might have even had Kuromaru chase that pillow in the making into the library at just the right time." Tsume said, sounding confident that nothing could be proven one way or another, "What's it to you?"

"So you wanted them to get together for some training?" She asked as it became clear that she was only seeing part of the scheme, "Why?"

For a moment it looked like Inuzuka Tsume would just up and leave the room without answering a question but then a large feral smile blossomed on her face along with a twinkle in her eye.

Not good.

"Simple. I want some grandkids and that Uchiha on your team is as good a catch as she's likely to get." Tsume replied, sounding quite interested in the possibility.

"Huh?" Was all she could get out at the fact that **THE** Inuzuka Tsume was playing matchmaker.

"Look, Anko! You and I both know that my girl doesn't exactly know how to handle guys and has pretty much scared most of the boys in the village her age shitless with how she acts." Tsume explained in her usual blunt manner, "It's gotten so bad that the parents use the lamest excuses whenever I try to set their sons up with her! At least this Xander guy sounds like he can give as good as he gets with her if half of her bitching can be believed. Plus, I'm pretty sure she has a thing for him."

"A thing for him!? If by thing you mean an axe to grind!" She exclaimed wondering whether or not she should arrange a psychological evaluation for Tsume.

"Nah! It's an itch she can't scratch and that itch is called a crush." Tsume stated dismissively with a wave of her hand, "Plenty of guys have pissed her off before but this Uchiha is the only one who's been buzzing around her head this long. That tells me she's interested in him and is just clueless about how to let him know how she feels. I figure if she's stuck with him on this training trip, one of them'll finally take the plunge."

Then the Inuzuka matriarch did something that really made her spine go cold.

She laughed out loud for a full six seconds!

"Oh, they'll come back closer than before alright! HAHAHAHA!" Tsume chuckled before looking her daughter's Jounin sensei right in the eye, "MUCH closer! Heheheheheheheh!"

While she did **temporarily** entertain the idea of asking the older woman what she meant but, fortunately, her better judgment persuaded her nothing good would come it.

Instead she chose the lesser of two evils and focused instead.

Paperwork!

_I'd rather be cooking for the __**entire**__ Akimichi than doing __**THIS!**_ She thought as looked at the pile of papers stacked as high as her head was wide, _Paperwork is the creation of the __**DEVIL!**_

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_**Outside of Konoha, One Hour After Sunset, Xander's P.O.V**_

_She's pissed and I'm pretty sure I don't want to know why._ Xander thought as he covertly watched Hana fume from her spot beside the campfire.

It had been a hard couple of hours heading out from Konoha, made harder by the fact that he'd underestimated the effectiveness of the technique Maito Gai that increased the gravitational pull on weights. Hana had given him a heckle or two about using such an out of date method of training but, given the results Lee had gotten from it, he wasn't about to pass it up. He knew that Lee got as fast as he had over years of training and that it was foolish to think that he could get that fast or that strong in time for the final matches. Of course that wouldn't stop him from getting as strong and as fast as he could by that time. Even if he only got three times as strong or as fast as before, it would be worth the effort if it gave him an edge over his enemies. Nevertheless, it was tricky getting the right power level on the gravity seals and, much to his embarrassment, he got pulled flat to the ground **twice** before he got it just right. Dog girl had laughed her ass off the entire time and he was pretty sure that her three mutts had been laughing as well. Still, the technique would make weight training much easier than finding heavy objects and tying them to his body like he'd been doing so far. He'd slightly overdone it for today and that was why they had stopped half an hour ago instead of holding on for another few hours. His body ached all over, he'd barely managed to set up his tent and start a fire, but he took it as a sign that he'd gotten a good workout.

It had been during the last few minutes, though, as Hana was setting up her own camping gear, that something had happened to distinctly sour the young woman's mood. He, of course, seeing her rising foul temper, had wisely kept his mouth shut and chose to focus instead on feeding Ava, who was perched on his backpack, picking at one of the rabbits he'd bought her. He might not be a genius when it came to women, but he knew enough to know when to mind his own business rather than get nosy. Still, as time went by and the curses she was muttering became easier to hear, it was looking like avoiding the storm wouldn't be a choice he'd be allowed to make. Sooner or later she was going to let all her fury and frustration explode outwards, washing over him like the shockwave of a nuclear blast. Actually he figured it'd be more akin to a furious bull stomping all around before it sees him as the proverbial red cape being waved around then running him over repeatedly. In any case, he figured it would be best if he tried to get her to vent some of her frustration now rather than wait for her to fire it all at him later.

"What's up, Hana? Something wrong?"

"Oh, no! NOTHING is wrong! Just that more than half the stuffing in my sleeping bag is missing and the tent that I **THOUGHT** was brand new turns out to be an old one full of holes!" Hana said, half turning around to face him with a look not usually seen outside of 'that time of the month', "So everything is just WONDERFUL!"

_Hoo-boy! If it's not their looks being messed up it's being forced to rough it more than usual._ He thought as he restrained himself from rolling his eyes, _You'd think because she was an animal care giver and a bit of a wild thing herself, that she'd be more comfortable in sleeping outdoors or something._

"Well my tent's big enough for two if you want to share." He offered not wanting to listen to her bitch all night or wake up with her cranky, tired AND pissed off.

"In your dreams, Wannabe!" Hana growled back before turning back to try and salvage her substandard gear somehow, "I'd sooner use this crappy gear and catch my death then get in that cramped tent with you!"

"Then how about you run back to town and grab the good gear? We were pretty much jogging since we left the village." He said trying to come up with another option for the Inuzuka girl so she wouldn't sour any further mood-wise, "If you go all out you should be able to run there and back in a couple of hours."

"Yeah. RIGHT! If I go back my Mom will just get on my case about being sloppy and then probably pile on the work for the next three weeks straight to teach me a lesson." She said as though he'd just made the most ridiculous suggestion ever, "Thanks, but no thanks. Now eat your food and go to sleep! I want to get on the road at first light!"

_Well that puts an end to that conversation._ He thought to himself as he opened up his cup of instant ramen and poured some boiling water into it.

He knew he could probably press the matter further if he wanted to, force the idiot to stop being such a bitch about it all, but he was too tired to get into a yelling match with her at the moment. While it was sort of fun to get into a snarking match with Cordy back home and Hana was a decent substitute, there were times when it just wasn't worth it. Plus there was a good chance that they'd wind up saying things they didn't mean and that would just make the entire trip that much more unbearable. He couldn't allow something as stupid as a bad night get in the way of his training, not if he wanted to do well in the final matches and find out what his mother meant in the poem she wrote in her final letter to him. Sure, it was mostly guesswork on his part, but his gut was telling him that he had the right idea and that was enough for him to spend some time on it. Even if he somehow failed to find what his mother had left for him, he would still get some decent training in and get a contract with the eagle hawk ninja. So while he'd definitely like it if he could find something about his mother's past, he would not throw up a fuss if he came up empty handed on that part.

It didn't take him long to finish the ramen and, once done, he sent a brief message to Ava that he intended to head to bed he crawled into his tent to get some much needed shut-eye. While camping out wasn't anything new to him thanks to the treatment he'd received in the past from Tony, it still wasn't quite as natural to him as someone who'd been doing it their entire life. Sliding into his sleeping bag, he tried to find a comfortable spot to fall asleep in, one where there wouldn't be a rock digging into his side or a stick poking him in the ass. He'd done what he could to clear away the crap so he could have a good spot to set up camp, but there was always the chance that he'd missed something. If so, all it would take would be one wrong roll and he'd get one helluva wake up call and, knowing him, it'd probably be a painful one. Thus he did some exploratory feeling with his hands and feet to try to find any hidden objects or debris that'd interrupt his sleep. Finding none, he finally settled down into his favorite sleeping position, letting his thoughts slow as he contemplated what was had happened thus far since he left Sunnydale and what was still to come.

In a way it was hard to believe that only a couple of months ago he was just your typical Californian teenager who spent his free time helping a Vampire Slayer keep his hometown safe. The night Ethan Rayne cast his spell, turning everyone into whoever or whatever they were dressed up as, had been a turning point for him in more ways than one. It showed him who his mother really was, what he could be and set him on the path he currently walked down to this very day. In the aftermath of the spell, he had learned that there was a way he could become more than what he was, better than he was and finally make a worthwhile contribution to the Scooby gang while he was at it. Thus had he chosen to work to retain the knowledge that had stuck from his Halloween Jounin self and build on it as best he could. He had also hoped that if he could prove himself to be an asset rather than a burden that his mother would choose to confide in him and let him help her on whatever mission she'd been sent on by the Hokage.

It hadn't worked out that way.

Before he could do more than put a bit of polish on his enspelled skills, the Order of Taraka had shown up, leading to that tragic night when he got to both see his mother as she truly was and when he lost her in the most painful way possible. To this very day, just remembering what happened caused sadness to well up within his body like oil that had finally been released from the ground by drillers. He clamped down on that feeling quickly though because he knew how useless it was to dwell on the past where everything was set in stone. The only thing he could control, that he could shape to his will, was the future but even then he realized that there would be things he'd have no control over. He could not predict the future, nor could he control every little bit of the world so that his life would flow smoothly and without flaws of any kind. Was he doomed to simply react to events as they happened? Or could he really exert some control over what happened? He liked to think that he could forge his own future and make it into something that he could be proud of when it was time for him to pass on. His goals when he'd set out from Sunnydale and they were pretty simple: a) take his mother home to be buried, b) tie up any loose ends his mother might have left undone, c) become a true Uchiha ninja and then d) return home to Sunnydale to help the gang defend the Hellmouth.

Since he'd arrived here, though, he'd have to modify things a bit.

Goal A had been met easily enough but the rest had changed upon learning that his mother hadn't been on a mission like he'd originally thought. She'd fled from the village before he was born under suspicion of treason and, five years ago, all but one of his family had been slaughtered by one who had been their most elite member. To watch as his dreams of being welcomed into a loving family, to finally be a part of something he could take pride in, disappear before his eyes had shook him internally like nothing else since his mother's death had managed to do. Nevertheless, he rose to the new challenge and established a new set of priorities for himself: a) become a full fledged ninja of Konoha, b) help with the restoration of the Uchiha clan both physically as well reputation-wise and c) return home to Sunnydale to help the gang protect the Hellmouth. The first two would be challenging but he figured the real trick would be to get Hokage-sama to agree to the last one. Just like Giles had explained to the others, the Hidden Villages didn't like their secrets getting out to anyone not a member of the village. Going back to Sunnydale would be seen as a security risk and, since he was only a Genin and no one really knew how well he'd be able to keep what he'd learned in Konoha a secret, they would no doubt point this out and either forbid him to go or send someone they did trust along for the ride to make sure nothing important got blabbed either by accident or by choice. Even if he managed to persuade the rest of Team Anko to come with him, something he'd hesitate to ask considering what the others would be asked to leave behind, it might not be enough to persuade the top dogs in this village to let him return to the Scooby gang.

_I know that I'll likely have Hokage-sama's support or at least he'll be willing to judge things objectively. _He thought as his mind began to slow down towards slumber, _If the old hag is allowed to have a say in things, though, she'll probably consider it an act of treason to even think about leaving the village, never mind working with the rest of the Scooby gang. Old Bitch!_

Nevertheless, he had to at least try because there were too many people he cared about waiting for him in Sunnydale for him to simply abandon them. He supposed that if they brought up the problem of keeping the techniques of Konoha a secret, he could explain the whole Sunnydale Denial Syndrome that was going on. After all, if people could rationalize away vampires, demons and magic then it wasn't that big of a stretch that they would repress or logic their way out of seeing someone breath fire from their mouths or shatter stone with a single punch. If they brought up his friends who he'd be interacting with on a daily basis and trusted, he'd tell them that they'd already seen his moves so the damage was already done. If they even **implied** that they'd do anything to Buffy and the others to keep Konoha techniques a secret, he'd make it clear to them how **unwise** that course of action would be. If need be… if it became necessary… then go all the way to keep his friends safe from harm. He'd do it because, in the end, the Scooby gang was family to him even, though they weren't connected by blood, and anyone who threatened that family would find him to be one enemy they should never have made.

He would make Uchiha Itachi seem like a common crook by comparison.

That was the ultimate promise from his mind to God's ears.

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_**The Woods Outside the Village of Konoha, One Hour Later, Ayeka's P.O.V**_

_Damn that flea ridden __**BITCH**__! Xander-sama is mine! _Ayeka thought as she curled up next to her portable heater, _I won't let her seduce him with her animal magnetism! I'll also give that damn map maker a piece of my mind for selling such substandard merchandise!_

It had been easy enough for her to find the same scrolls that her future husband had looked through and, once she had jotted down directions, she had immediately packed up for an extended stay in the wild. However, as she'd reached the eastern gate of the village, she realized one little detail that made her mission all the more difficult.

She had no clue where half the places mentioned in the directions were. While, as a member of Team Anko, she had been outside of the village many times before, they'd always traveled the main pathways and travel routes. Almost all of the village's clients lived in known cities or villages but, if the scrolls in the library were accurate, then the best place to contact the eagle hawk ninjas was quite a ways off the beaten path from the very beginning. Thus she had been forced to visit a local map maker who sold his wares to merchants and tourists who passed through the city for the information she needed. The old man had sold her a map that he'd guaranteed would take her precisely where she wanted to go and had even given her ten percent off the normal rate for the map. Seeing it as a sweet deal, she hadn't hesitated and thus had set out from Konoha with everything she'd need to both catch up with her prey and endure some very unpleasant roughing it. Thanks to her ability to seal objects into scrolls, though, she was almost always able to bring everything needed to camp in comfort. A portable heating unit, a completely weatherproof tent, a battery powered portable stove and numerous other things that would make sure she wanted for nothing. Well, almost nothing anyways. There was a certain size limit as far as what could be sealed away inside a scroll, so some of the larger things that would have made everything alright she had been forced to leave behind. However, from the moment she'd left the village to seek out her teammates to the present, she'd only succeeded in making it to two of the twenty points in the directions she'd made note of in the library.

Then she'd gotten completely los…NO!

She would **NOT** say that she'd gotten lost!

If she admitted that, then there was no way that she'd be able to find Xander-sama and Hana-no-BITCH! That could not be permitted to happen! While she didn't think that dogbreath would be able to match or exceed the progress she'd managed to make towards winning Xander-sama's heart during this trip alone, she wouldn't tolerate unnecessary bumps in the road. She had entertained the idea of nurturing Dog Girl's interest in her future husband for the purpose of keeping all other potential suitors away from the American Uchiha, but had ultimately discarded the strategy. While she had initially thought that nothing would come of the Inuzuka's fascination with Xander-sama, there was always the possibility that it would grow into something troublesome if she let it. That was why she had put a stop to all efforts pertaining to making the brunette consider the possibilities that could open up if she were to try and be more than a friend to Xander-sama. She was beginning to worry that perhaps she was too late and that now the fuse had been lit within Hana's heart, making it only a matter of time before she made her feelings abundantly obvious. Subtlety was never a trait one would associate with the Inuzuka clan, so if Hana suddenly decided she wanted to make a play for Xander-sama's heart, then it'd be something big and loud.

She would NOT however let things get that far.

After a good night's sleep she'd resume the hunt for them despite the crappy map and her inability to find the next landmark in the directions she'd gained from the library. Once she found them, she would make it look as though she was just there to render some extra aide to her future husband but, in truth, she'd be making sure not a speck of romance erupted between the two. The only one who'd be able to make any sort of sparks with Xander-sama would be her and she'd surprise everyone with just how far she was willing to go.

For now though she would get a good night's sleep and head out at the crack of dawn in an effort to make up for lost time.

She would not lose to Hana!

She would not lose to **anyone!**

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_**The Camp of Hana and Xander, Midnight, Hana's P.O.V**_

_I am __**not**__ going i-in there!_ Hana thought as she tried to soak up as much warmth from her partners as possible, _I'm p-perfectly fine!_

Nevertheless, it was more than a little chilly out this night and, while having Hagane, Ishina and Seirei took some of the chill away, that did not make what she was going through any easier. Her sleeping bag had more than half of the stuffing missing and her tent looked like something she'd see set up by some homeless person in the towns outside of Konoha. Neither was capable of giving sufficient protection against the elements by themselves and, together, she was treading the line between things being tolerable and being in prime condition to catch a cold. While it was true she could get a good night's sleep and keep from getting a cold if she took Wannabe up on his offer of sharing his tent, she would sooner come down with pneumonia then go near his tent. For one thing, while the Uchiha's tent might be big enough to fit two people into it, there would be less than an inch of free space between the two occupants. Depending on how things went, either Xander or her might very well wind up with their arms wrapped around the other come morning. She, after all, made full use of her bed when she was at home and Wannabe struck her as the sort who did the same, so the odds of waking up in an intimate position was high. Almost as high was the probability that neither of them would get a good night's sleep with their flopping limbs waking each other up at random. So really it was more sensible that they stay separate both for sleep's sake as well as to avoid any potentially awkward situations.

She knew she could have done as he'd suggested, run back to Konoha to get proper camping equipment, but she knew if she did that, she'd only wind up getting a talking to from her mother and brother. The Inuzuka clan had a reputation to maintain, after all, and if one of them came running back to town just because their camping gear wasn't brand new, then it would be seen as a sign of weakness. Weakness among ninja was not a good thing, since it often meant death unless something was done about the flaw. She knew that her family wouldn't like the fact that even a speck of weakness got on the family honor, even if she did give them a good reason for it later. So, if she had to choose between staring a nasty cold in the face and getting the 'I am so disappointed in you' look from her mother, she'd choose the flu.

As the minutes ticked by, though, she found that the temperature felt like it was continuing to drop, even though it was coming up on summer. Was it only her imagination? Or was the weather really taking a turn for the chilly? Either way she wasn't enjoying herself one little bit, despite the body heat that her partners were trying to pass on to her. No matter what, though, she wasn't going to give into the small part of her mind that was yelling 'just get in his damn tent' at her over and over again.

Still… she supposed that her reason for not wanting to get into such close quarters with Wannabe **might**, boy was it a big might, have something to do with the possibility that she was starting to think of him in ways that a simple teammate or friend wouldn't. It was during the second phase of the Chuunin exam that she'd looked at his troubled sleeping form and wondered if having someone hold him would help him any. Had he been anyone else, she probably would have just thought 'what a wimp' and been done with it. However, with Xander, she had actually felt a light compulsion to go the extra mile to help him and, well, she actually had some side interest concerning what it'd feel like curled up against him. Naturally she had crushed such thoughts right away because he was nowhere near her type and the idea of going out on a… on a… DATE with him made her want to pound someone into a bloody mess. He was a high and mighty Uchiha and she was from a clan that ranked somewhere around the middle as far as Konoha families were concerned. She was a wild child even among the Inuzuka clan and, from what she could see of the new Uchiha, there was a structure to just about everything he did even if only he knew what it was most of the time.

They were just too different and it showed every time they started bitching at each other.

Despite that, though, she couldn't deny that she got a bit of a kick out of throwing down with him, whether it be with words alone or in a sparring match with Anko-sensei playing referee. He was resourceful, inventive and kept her on her toes almost the entire time they went at it. What made it even better was the fact, unlike most people, time didn't make it easier for her to learn his moves or fighting style. Just when she thought that she knew every jutsu in his repertoire, he wound up pulling off something new that caught her off guard, forcing her to back off a couple feet to rethink her attack plan. Whether it was because he was learning jutsus between training sessions or simply because of that asswipe chaos mage's Halloween spell, she didn't know. However she knew that his snarking skills and quick wit were one hundred percent natural as well as something that had been honed through practice with a skilled opponent. The simple fact that she was having such a hard time beating him nine times out of ten was what made things fun, even if the occasional bouts of frustration had her getting drunk soon afterwards. Usually she only paid the bars a visit when Wannabe managed to score five or more consecutive hits verbally or managed to make her look like a genin fresh from the academy.

_Good thing that hasn't happened a lot lately._ She thought as she fought off a shiver caused by the cold, _Mom was getting a little tired of me oversleeping._

In a way, maybe it almost made her wish that Xander wasn't so different from her because, if things had been different, she might have actually entertained trying to date him. After all, it was a common trend among members of the Inuzuka clan to seek out strong boyfriends or girlfriends, since doing so would ensure that the next generation would be stronger than the preceding one. Of course she'd be doing her best not to follow her mother's example, since she'd only managed to keep her man around just long enough to have a pair of kids before scaring him off to parts unknown. The clan matriarch, naturally, denied doing anything wrong but she'd heard enough details about how her mother had treated her father after they'd officially tied the knot. Personally she considered most of those stories to be exaggerated but enough of them were similar that she knew there had to be some truth to the tales. She would make sure to handle whatever guy she set her eyes on with a bit more care and, if her feelings were strong enough for the young man, she might even consider compromising with him on some things. Not **everything,** though. She would not be some mousy wife who always bowed to the wishes of her husband! If she thought the guy was wrong, she'd sure as hell let him know it in the most direct manner she could come up with at the time. Considering the fact hat she was a ninja and a member of the Inuzuka clan, the odds favored violence and lots of it as the typical response she'd have to a choice her husband made that she didn't agree with.

If whoever her hubby turned out to be couldn't handle that, then she clearly had misjudged him.

Sadly it was a fact that none of the guys her own age in Konoha were made of stern enough stuff to satisfy her and the few that physically came close were complete assholes. They were so full of themselves that it only took an hour for her to get pissed enough at them to pound them into the ground, witnesses or no witnesses. In fact, now that she thought about it, Xander came pretty close physically to being up to her standards and the fact that he could keep up with her verbally told her he wasn't a complete idiot in the brain department. If it wasn't for the fact that he considered himself just as good as her even though he'd only gotten his ninja know how several months ago, she might have been less predisposed to being a bitch around him. However, what is is and unless something big happened to change how Wannabe acted, it was unlikely that she'd ever see him as anything but a teammate or maybe a friend.

Then again, perfect matches were pretty much an illusion; there was always something that needed fixing in any relationship, so maybe she was being a bit too picky. After all, she wasn't like those stupid Sasuke fangirls who believed in the perfect boyfriend. She knew that such a man didn't exist in this world and she wouldn't waste time waiting for such a guy to appear. So maybe she should reconsider her position towards Uchiha Xander.

Almost immediately her mind tried to come up with one reason or another why she should flush that sentiment down the crapper ASAP. However she knew that most of her objections sprang from the fact that she wasn't exactly experienced in the dating arena and was afraid of coming off as a complete idiot. While she might be considered something of a tomboy herself, that didn't mean she understood guys anymore than the men supposedly understood women. Due to this problem, she tended to shy away from dating for the most part because, if there was one thing she valued greatly, it was respect, whether it was self-respect or the respect of others. No one would respect someone who'd just made an idiot of themselves in public. Still, she had to wonder if there was some way she could date but not make a fool of herself. She supposed if they kept their dates to less frequented restaurants and went when the number of patrons was at its lowest, the damage could be kept to a minimum. With so few people, it wouldn't be hard for her to memorize their faces and have 'a little talk' with them later if anything bad happened. Provided they weren't Jounin or someone important, she'd be able to make her point with them without too much difficulty.

Maybe it was worth exploring just to see if there was a decent chance of it working.

_AAAAHHHHHH! This is driving me nuts!_ She thought as she got up from the cold ground and began walking over to Wannabe's tent with her half stuffed sleeping bag in hand, _I'll be able to think it through better after a good night's sleep and I'm going to get that sleeping out here. I guess I'll take him up on his offer after all. If he asks, though, I'll just say something like 'I will be damned if you are the only one to get a good night's sleep' or something._

Opening up the Uchiha's tent, she slipped inside without a sound and was slightly puzzled to find that he had put his own sleeping bag right up against the left wall of the tent. This left her with the right side of the tent all to herself with only a little room between the two of them if they lay down side by side. Did he anticipate that she'd eventually get tired of the outside and sneak in? With a shrug, she realized that it didn't really matter in the end moved to set her sleeping bag down as best she could while spreading out the stuffing that remained to provide **some** heat retention. Slipping into it, she had to admit that while she hadn't thought of it before, as long as the two of them stayed in their sleeping bags the odds of them waking the other up or getting into a awkward position were slim. So her earlier concerns were foolish and, with that in mind, she eased into sleep comforted by the superior warmth she now enjoyed. She would rest, replenish her strength and then resume helping Uchiha Xander while trying to sort out where it was she wanted to be relationship-wise as far as he was concerned.

Konoha Shinobi.

Teammate.

Friend.

Potential boyfriend.

She'd decide which one of these best defined how she saw the Uchiha from California, USA tomorrow when her head wasn't so messed up by fatigue.

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_**Three Days Later, The Foot of Mount Nanzue, Late Morning, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Ouch! Looks like there's still a bit of healing to do. _Xander thought as he lowered his hand from the side of his face that sported a nasty bruise, _Hopefully dog girl will have the decency not to smack me again tomorrow morning._

It had been an unfortunate pattern the last two mornings that when he woke up in the morning with Hana in the tent with him, she was almost always curled up next to him with her head on his shoulder. She even had this quirky grin on her face on the occasions when he woke up before her but, while he was somewhat amused by this, that amusement didn't last long. This was because as soon as the Inuzuka girl woke up and found herself in close proximity to him, her reaction was both instantaneous as well as consistent. She punched him. In **the JAW!** Whether or not she did this consciously or due to reflex he didn't know but it was starting to seriously grate on his nerves and make it somewhat painful to do anything with his mouth. Eating or speaking hurt the worst but simple breathing wasn't exactly a treat either for him. In the back of his mind he began trying to think up different ways he could somehow manage to keep that from happening tonight but, short of sticking his large backpack or somehow dividing the tent into two halves, he had no clue what to do. Nevertheless he'd continued to try and figure out a good way to keep from getting pounded every **single** time he either woke her up or she woke up on her own.

Adjusting the strap on the weighted vest he'd been wearing, along with the arm and leg weights he'd been wearing since they'd left Konoha, he soldiered on. They were nowhere near as heavy as Lee's weights, it'd be years before he'd become strong enough to be able to handle the same amount of weight as the weird genin, but they were still heavy enough that they helped him get stronger. He had lost count as to the exactly amount, but given the fact that most nin used chakra to enhance their strength, which was precisely what he was doing, it really didn't matter in the long run. It was more than what he had on him when he'd first encountered Team Gai, that much was apparent, and it was a slow, steady process at which he added weight to his body, though he'd be the first to admit that he had been running out of ways to strap more weight to himself. It felt like he was moving through particularly deep water with every step he took, but it wasn't so difficult that he would become completely wiped after an hour, so the results were showing. He could still get a full day of training done with his current weight level, even if it rendered him too fatigued to do much more than set up camp and eat a meal before getting some sleep. Only when the strain was starting to feel normal would he increase the weights.

_It might be a bit ambitious for me, but I'm hoping that by this time next year I'll be strong enough and fast enough to match Lee without his weights. _He thought as he looked upwards at the mountain they had to scale to reach the communication spot for the eagle hawk ninja clan, _After all, from what I heard during the preliminaries, most of Lee's speed comes from opening the chakra gates inside of his body instead of his muscle's innate strength. All he needs to open the chakra gates in order to perform his two signature moves secondary and primary lotus. If he never learned those two moves, then he wouldn't be as strong a ninja as he is now._

He wanted to push his body to the limits of what it could be on its own before he even began to look for various techniques to make himself even stronger. Despite what some might think, he didn't desire power for its own sake or to increase his own personal gains, but rather to protect those he cared about. Buffy, Willow, Giles, Joyce, Ms. Calender, Cordy, Anko-sensei and all the others were what mattered to him. More than anything else he wanted to keep them safe and happy. So long as he could do that for them, he would put up with whatever hardship might be required of him and he would endure. He would be the wall they could hide behind, the blade that struck down their enemies and the friend they could unburden themselves unto when necessary. Would he completely ignore his own desires? No. He would instead put the needs and desires of his loved ones before his own. Only once he had helped them to the best of his ability would he attempt to fulfill his own desires and accomplish his own objectives. In order to help them to the best of his ability, he would have to grow stronger, not only in body but also in mind, and that could only be done through intense training.

Hence the weights and the plan to form a familial contract with the eagle hawk ninja clan.

One's chakra capacity increased through training and learning.

The contract would literally allow him to gain a bird's eye view of things, increasing his ability to handle what situations might come his way.

However this would only be the beginning for him in his quest to become strong enough to protect and help those he cared about. He would seek out other ways as time passed, as he came to believe he had sufficient skill in a jutsu to move on, and in time he would be strong enough that he would never lose to anyone who dared to threaten those he cared about.

That was his lifetime promise.

…But here was no way in **HELL** that he strike the nice guy pose no matter how much Lee or Gai pestered him about it.

SMACK!

"Ow! Why the hell did you do that!?" He asked Hana as he rubbed the back of his head to soothe the pain from her strike.

"'Cause you were spacing out and I'd like to get at least a third of the way to the top before making camp." She replied snarkily as she started to walk towards the rocky path that started at the base of the mountain, "Unlike you, I don't plan on wasting any more time on this than I have to."

With those words, the feral woman trotted towards the path with her three mutts forming up behind her without a speck of hesitation. Looking at her go, he had to admit that if one looked past her bitch personality, Inuzuka Hana was a pretty fine young woman and a good ninja to boot. Like most kunoichi she had a fit and toned body that would definitely put most supermodels to shame and her skills as a ninja were easily on par with his own, if not better. If her dog-like qualities extended past her choice of animal partners and wild looks, odds were she had a pack mentality as well as need to be strong. Good qualities to have as a ninja. Sure, there were shinobi who could take on whole armies by themselves but having a team to back you up was what kept you alive. Did her desire for strength crossover into what sort of guys she liked? He didn't know and wasn't about to ask since it would likely just earn him another punch to the jaw and it was bruised enough already thankyouveryMUCH. Would he ever consider asking her out on a date? Maybe. She'd have to either reign in or get rid of some of that attitude first because, while it was good exercise going toe-to-toe with in her in anything from sparring matches to snark contests, he couldn't see a relationship with too much of either lasting for very long. They'd either wind up saying something they couldn't take back or they'd probably kill each other and bury the body out in the middle of nowhere.

Not what one would cause a rousing success no matter who they were.

Still, when his mind started coming up with scenarios where he actually experienced some good luck and good times with her, he had to admit it looked pretty nice. Walking forward towards the rough path that would take them to the top, he felt when Ava finally came in for a landing onto the top of his backpack. The bird sent him a feeling of inquiry that was not specific so he figured that she was interested in what he was currently thinking about. A bit odd, considering the connection the two of them had, but he guessed that didn't automatically transfer what was in their individual minds from one to the other but rather required an act of will on Ava's part or his own. So long as neither of them willed the other to know their thoughts there'd be no spill over between them. A good thing, too, because he'd likely go crazy if he lived his entire life being bombarded by what went on inside the brain of an eagle hawk during the course of a day. Deciding that if he told her the truth, that he was thinking about what a more than friendship relationship with Hana would be like, would only earn him half an hour of constant bitching, he went with something somewhat safer. He told her he was thinking about what he would have to say or do when he finally met the eagle hawk ninja clan to form a familial contract with them.

The response he got was a video clip of Hana saying 'kiss my ass' to some Konoha ninja but imposed over the Inuzuka girl's head was a large eagle hawk's head.

_I am not going to kiss __**anyone's**__ ass to get this contract!_ He thought back at the bird with annoyance as he continued up the mountain path, _I'm going to face them and make them a deal that both sides can live with. NOTHING more!_

To this Ava sent him the image of a donkey's backside that she must have seen before she encountered him.

Simply put she was calling him a jackass.

In retaliation he flicked the bird on the beak before doing his very best to ignore the overgrown feather duster. The bird did many things to try and get his attention or retaliate for the finger flick but, whether it was screeching in his ear, obscene images put into his head or beak pecking, he restrained himself from reacting in any way. Eventually the avian pain in his ass took to the skies once more but never straying from his sight, so he had to presume that she didn't want to lose sight of him. He wasn't sure why she didn't just fly off and look for a new master if she didn't like him all that much but he figured it probably had something to do with food. That one thing was the only incentive he'd been able to use to get her to do as he asked with any reliability, so she probably thought it'd be too much hassle to find someone else to feed her like she wanted. If she had a line on someone else who could meet her needs, odds were she'd fly off one day and he'd never see her again. He wasn't quite sure how he'd feel about that. While it was true that they'd been together for a while now, he wouldn't quite go so far as to say that she was a close partner of his or anything. After all, they argued almost four times a day, kept their interaction focused on ninja business and didn't really know each other all that deeply. Whether that would change in time, he didn't know. Only time would tell he guessed.

With that thought he quickened his pace into a light jog both for the purpose of catching up with Hana and to get more of a workout than he could get simply by walking.

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_**Two Days Later, Somewhere in the Country of Fire, Noon, Ayeka's P.O.V**_

_Well, there's no ignoring the facts now._ Ayeka thought with disgust and anger as she tried to find a recognizable landmark to navigate by_, I am __**COMPLETELY**__ lost!_

Right at that moment the only thing that was keeping her from completely losing it was the stockpile of payback scenarios she'd come up with to use against that asshole of a map seller. In between her efforts to get a lock on a landmark to follow Xander-sama, she had come up with quite a few inventive ideas for getting some payback and she couldn't wait to try them out. The only problem with that was that since she was now officially lost, she had no idea which direction Konoha was in, much less where Mount Nanzue was, so revenge wasn't any more of an option than Xander-sama. The part of her that was the rational kunoichi told her to head back to Konoha and just wait for her future husband since the odds of catching up to him and Hana now were pretty low. They'd left Konoha five days ago and, thanks to the piece of shit map she'd purchased, she was probably than many days away from them. However, every time she thought about retracing her steps back to the village, her mind conjured images of Hana aggressively putting the moves on the future chuunin, causing her drive to find them to skyrocket. While she knew that the Inuzuka girl's skills when it came to seducing a guy were completely rank amateur, it was not seduction she was worried about so much as things devolving into some sort of sick S&M thing. She recalled all too well the number of times that Hana had tried to get something to go her way using conventional means only to end up using strong arm tactics along with threats of a drawn out death to get what she wanted.

The fact that Anko-sensei often took advantage of this behavioral pattern on missions only meant that dog girl had plenty of opportunities to perfect her skills in this area.

That meant that while she had no doubt that Xander-sama would resist her to his last breath, him being a good guy as well as a gentleman, she worried that he might not walk away unscathed if things turned ugly. With that in mind, she doubled her efforts to find a recognizable landmark, using her projectile specialist eyes to their fullest, and refusing to stop until she did. It was as she did this though that she spotted someone walking in her direction down the dirt path below. Perhaps this person might know where Mount Nanzue was located or at least might be able to direct her to someplace she actually knew. Walking down the side of the tree, she had climbed up in order to get a better view of the area she waited for the advancing figure to get closer. As the person got closer, she was able to immediately identify the person as male (or maybe a woman who preferred to dress like a man), wearing a combination of black pants, dark mustard colored shirt and a head of black hair. A few minutes later she was able to see he had a backpack with some sort of umbrella tied to the top of it and this pretty much pegged him as someone on a long journey. It was when he finally got close enough that he could see her as well as she could see him that she picked out the yellow and black headband he wore, completing her mental picture of him. The teenager, roughly the same age as her, looked to be just as frustrated about his current situation as she was and she worried that he might be just as lost as she was.

_Best wait until I actually speak to the guy before I let that idea take hold. _She thought as she waited for the traveling teen to reach her position.

The guy got points in his favor when he didn't turn into a complete lech when he laid eyes on her but she had to wonder if her days of traveling had truly messed with her stunning beauty too much. She wanted to take out her compact mirror and give her head a once over but didn't want to send this guy the wrong message somehow. Instead she waited until he was right in front of her before getting his attention with a slight cough.

"Yes?" He asked obviously, smart enough to realize that she wanted to talk to him about something.

"Well, handsome, I was wondering if you could help me out a bit." She said before using a little charm to grease the proverbial wheels, "It seems I've gotten a little lost here and I was hoping you might be able to direct me to a nearby town or roadside restaurant. I'm sure if I could get to one of those I could find my way home. So, can you help me?"

"Well…you know…I'd really like to but…" replied the guy who looked like he was debating mentally whether or not to help her.

Was the guy a complete idiot when it came to women or were her earlier concerns correct?

Well then, she would just have to find a way to make him less inclined to deny her request.

"Oh, it's been such a trial to try and find my way home!" She said, gradually putting her 'vulnerable and distraught girl' routine into effect, "My parents must be so worried about me! Won't you please help me?!"

She knew that she had managed to find a chink in his armor when she spotted a true bit of sympathy in his eyes. Now all he needed to do was fan the flames of that sympathy a little bit and this guy would be stuck in the palm of her hands.

"I can only imagine what my little sister is going through right now, *sniff*." She said, pretending that she was trying to fight off some tears, "She looks up to me so much, you know. I remember just last week how she said that she wanted to grow up to be just like me."

It was when she heard his sigh of defeat that she knew she had him lock, stock and barrel.

"Well, I've only been in this region for a week, so I don't know it all too well but…" Mr. Headband said before putting on a determined smile, "Okay! I'll take you back to the town I went through about four hours ago and you can make you're way home from there. Good enough?"

"Oh, thank you!!" she exclaimed before glomping onto him, taking special care to make sure he felt her chest pressing into him while keeping everything innocent, "You're so kind! May I have your name so I can tell my family who was so nice to me?"

"Sure! My name is Ryouga Hibiki." Ryouga replied with pride while pointing at himself, "What's you name Miss…"

"Mishima Ayeka." She finished for him before ending with a cute batting of the eyelids.

"Then let's get going, Ayeka-san." Ryouga said before turning to the right and heading into the forest expecting her to follow.

"Shouldn't we go back the way you came?" She asked as a weird feeling started pulsing within her stomach.

"This'll be a short cut." Ryouga replied with a reassuring smile, "The road gets ridiculously twisty back the way we came. We'll save some time going this way."

_Well, that makes sense._ She thought as she followed him into the forest in the hopes that she could soon get to someplace she knew, _With a little luck I should be able to make up for lost time once I get my bearings and keep my darling Xander-sama safe from dog girl's clutches._

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_**The Top of Mount Nanzue, Three Days Later, Late Morning, Xander's P.O.V**_

"Well…it took us eight days, but we're finally here." Xander said before flopping down onto his hands and knees to try and recover some strength.

"Quit you're whining, ya big baby!" Hana snarked at him as she looked over the location for the technique that would allow him to communicate with the eagle hawk ninja clan, "You're the one who insisted on keep those weights on even when I told you the air was going to be a bit different the higher we went. So quit bitchin' and just accept that you screwed up!"

"Whatever!" He said as he began to take off his weights as he wouldn't need them from here on out.

While he did admit that maybe he should have used what he learned from Gai to decrease gravity's hold on the weights as they got higher up the mountain, his determination to grow stronger had managed to keep its grip on him. Thus, on the entire way up the mountain, he'd gone out of his way to prove to the Inuzuka girl that he wasn't bothered in the least by the additional strain to his body. The truth of the matter was that the higher up they went, the more he found himself moulding chakra to deal with the complaints his muscles were sending him. Fortunately for him they had been almost at the top at sundown last night and had only stopped to set up camp because the weather had taken a turn for the worse. Thanks to that they hadn't had that far to travel but, because of his efforts to prove to that the weights weren't causing him trouble, his body was still sore when they woke up this morning. Thus, when he had put his weights on for the last leg of the trip to the top, he wound up like he was right now: in need of a breather or perhaps a short nap. However, if Hana's mood was any hint, it was doubtful that she'd give him the time to do so. While not necessarily impatient, she was definitely eager to get back to Konoha as soon as the contract was signed. Once he untied the last set of weights on his left leg, he began to root through his backpack for the notes he'd taken from the scroll in the Konoha Library.

The first thing to do was to draw out the summoning circle as depicted in the scroll and, based on his notes as well as what he could recall of the official scroll, whoever wrote these instructions had been seriously anal about the details. Everything from the sizes of the various symbols, to brush thickness to even something as stupid as how many brush strokes should be used to do the whole thing was written out in excruciating detail. Personally he understood how there were certain times when you had to be precise when doing something important but whoever wrote the scroll on forming a familial contract with an animal ninja clan had taken precise instructions to a new level. Still, he was relatively new to the whole ninja thing so for all he knew this was a common way of explaining things.

He still thought it was a ridiculous amount of detail.

"Let's get this started." He said set aside a brush for Hana, along with a container of ink, "I'll take the letters and symbols if you take the rest."

"What're you talking about? I just said that I'd take you here and be your anchor for the entire process." Hana said making herself comfortable at the edge of the large flat area the was the top of the mountain, "I never said anything about helping you do anything else."

He wanted to snark at her but when he thought back he realized that she had spoken the truth. He had originally just gone to her for directions and for someone who could serve as an anchor for him so he wouldn't get lost. She had never agreed to do anything outside of that at any point during the trip. He had just assumed that, since they were teammates, she'd help him out as an act of kindness or something. Apparently he had forgotten that he was dealing with a teammate that didn't particularly like him or at least liked to get on his case when she could. Shaking his head at having such a troublesome person with him, he almost wished that he actually had asked Ayeka to be the one to go with him. Then his mind showed him precisely what would have happened had he gone that route: numerous attempts at aggressive seduction and probably a few instances of her trying to speed up the time table where their 'relationship' was concerned. He knew from various sources that the Mishima girl was something of predator when it came to guys and that she specifically targeted men who were completely high class to the hilt. Why she was bothering with him… he wasn't quite sure. Sure, he was an Uchiha and, true, the clan name came with some prestige, but considering that his family numbered precisely two… well, three, technically, at the moment, that meant very little power in the grand scheme of things. From what he had been told, both he and Sasuke were pretty much living off of whatever money the entire Uchiha clan had possessed prior to Itachi's massacre of his family. All the shops that had been run by clan members had been killed along with their owners and any outside businesses that had been supported by the Uchiha had long since found other backers.

It was one of the many things that both he and Sasuke would have to worry about when they began work to restore the clan to its former glory.

With directions in one hand and the necessary ink tools in the other, he began to draw the symbols, letters and lines as described in the notes. It was a long and, quite frankly, tedious procedure for him but since doing it over would require more time than he felt he had, he did all he could to get it right the first time. There were a few times in which he was afraid that the flat area of the mountain top would not be big enough for what was required, that erosion or something had shrunk it, but each time it happened he managed to skate by successfully. He was actually rather surprised that when the last symbol had been drawn that it took the absolute last drop of ink to do it. Apparently the woman at the ink shop actually knew what she was talking about, even if her nigh-fanatical attachment to ink and ink tools was still creepy to him. With the ink part done, he moved onto the incense by placing the various plates and bowls where his notes told him they should go around the perimeter of the summoning circle. He could easily light the incense with a katon jutsu, since it would be easier than trying to light them the traditional way. All said and done, it took the better part of an hour to get it all done so with preparations it was time for the actual ceremony itself.

"Alright! Everything's done so get onto that symbol there while I sit in the center." He said while making sure the extra large scroll he'd purchased was tied to his back, "You don't have any speaking words in this ceremony so just sit there and wait for it all to be over."

"Sounds good to me!" Hana said, sitting down on top of the symbol set aside for the anchor part of the ceremony, "Don't take too long, okay?"

"Right." He replied as he took one final look at the notes he'd made before shoving the parchment under his shirt.

_Boar, Dog, Bird, Tiger, Serpent, Dog, Tiger, Monkey, Rat, Dragon!_ He thought as he formed the seals necessary to get the ball rolling, _Kuchiyose: Rensa Tai!_

Slamming his right hand in the center of the pattern of symbols in front of him, coincidentally the same pattern that formed when others performed the Summoning Tehcnique, and pushing the required amount of chakra to start the chain reaction, Xander began. Like clockwork the blue chakra light began to spread outwards like water, from one symbol to another, until there wasn't a single bit of ink that wasn't lit up.

_Rat, Tiger, Dog, Ox, Hare, Tiger!_ He thought as he formed the second set of seals, _Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!_

Raising his right hand to his mouth he began to spit out fireballs at the incense igniting each portion spread out along the perimeter of the main circle. With that done, all he could do was wait for the eagle ninja clan to respond from their side of things. From what he could recall of the scrolls centered on the summoning technique, the jutsu itself was essentially the equivalent of dialing someone's number. It was true that after the contract was signed by both parties, there was no chance of a summoning creature refusing to answer the summoner; the first meeting that would lead to the contract being formed was another matter entirely. He could let out as big a ring as possible and hope that the one he was trying to contact decided to reply as soon as possible. He'd read several instances where the ninja had to wait almost a full twenty-four hours before the summoning creature replied. Of course, in that case, the long wait had been because the summoning animal had wanted to test the shinobi's commitment and patience. He had no idea whether or not the eagle hawk ninja clan would do the same but he sure hoped they didn't. Hana might be willing to stick around and help him for a while but he had no doubt that if this dragged on for too long, she'd give him one helluva earful all the way back to Konoha. In fact it'd probably be worse than Cordy having a bad day while enduring the peak of 'that time' after encountering Snyder when the troll was having a bad day.

In short it might be in his best interests to just commit suicide if things wound up taking more than an hour.

A flash of light forced him to close his eyes, announcing that **something** was happening even though he wasn't quite sure what. When his eyes finally opened, he knew for a fact that something big had happened because the scenery had changed in more ways than one. If he had to describe it, the area around him looked like one of those mist surrounded mountain regions you saw in those Japanese paintings. Overlaying on top of that like a failing holographic projection was the mountain he remembered being on before the light had blinded him. Had he been teleported to another dimension? Was his body still back on the mountain while his spirit was here? He wasn't certain but he decided that whatever happened next he would just take it and stride while keeping in mind the contents of the scrolls he'd read.

"A-hem!" Came a somewhat annoyed voice from behind him.

Turning to face the speaker, he couldn't help but drop his jaw in shock at the sight laid out before him, along with other beings arrayed on either side. Both the owner of the voice as well as his fellows were undoubtably eagle hawks, since they looked like giant versions of Ava and each of them were clad in clothes or gear consistent with feudal lords or ninja. He had to grin a bit as he confirmed that the ceremony to contact his summoning animal choice had succeeded leaving him in a prime position to achieve his objective. Now came what was most likely going to be the hardest part of the entire process: establishing a good first impression. While there hadn't been a whole lot to read about the eagle hawk ninja clan, he had read enough to know that interacting with them was like walking through a mine field.

One wrong step and he wouldn't be around to try a second time.

"Good morning, Takashu-sama." He said looking to the eagle hawk that appeared to be the largest as well as the dressed the most expensively, "I have come to you and your kin today in the hopes that you will see fit to grant my request and enter into a familial contract with my clan. I know that you have no reason to trust me as we have just met, but I swear to you all on my life that I will prove myself worthy of such an honor."

While it may have been a tad long winded, he knew that when trying to do anything with high and mighty types it was always good to down play your own importance while exaggerating their importance. However, it was a delicate balancing act since he knew that some people got annoyed if some stranger tried too hard to butter them up with compliments and praise. He was also taking a wild guess as to the Lord of the eagle hawk clan's name, but he'd read in the scrolls of the library that the boss of the toad ninja clan was Gamabunta which translated to 'toad king'. Therefore, following that line of logic, he had thought it possible that the king of the eagle hawk ninja clan would be named taka for hawk/eagle and shu for master/lord. With a little bit of luck he just might have chosen right and made a truly good first impression. However given the sort of luck that his family tended to have he probably just insulted the top hawk and was minutes away from being not only tossed back to his world but also off the mountain.

"Well, well! It's nice to know that at least one ninja knows how to properly address royalty." Stated the one he had called Takashu-sama with an amused gleam in its eye, "So many of these guys just contact us and start acting like they're on equal terms with us. Still, you've come with quite a request bouya. My clan hasn't agreed to a familial contract in centuries. Why should we do so now?"

_Is this a trick question?_ He thought as he tried to promptly think up a good reply.

"In truth, I am not sure that any reason I give you will be enough to convince you to sign a familial contract." He replied deciding that honesty would be the best way to go, "The truth of the matter is that the Chuunin exams are happening in Konoha now and, in three weeks, the final matches will take place. I'm the only member of my team to make it and I need an edge if I am to go all the way. Against the likes of Hyuuga Neji and Gaara of the Desert, I'm not sure if I can beat them as I am now."

"So…it's that time of the year already." Takashu-sama said, sounding like he was mildly interested in the Exam, "If you're looking for an edge for the Exam, then why do you want a familial contract? One or two temporary scrolls should suffice to get you through to the final match."

"I wish to enter into a familial contract with your clan because while doing well in the final matches of the Chuunin Exam would be nice, there is a more long term goal that I must keep in mind." He replied taking on a serious look given what he was about to say, "My family in Konoha, my clan, was nearly destroyed six years ago and, as it stands, only me along with my cousin, Sasuke, remain to try and rebuild the clan. I am working hard to help my cousin restore the clan and one of the best ways I know to that is to become the best ninja possible. Gaining a familial contract with your clan would help my clan tremendously."

His words seemed to strike a chord with the Hawk Lord as the animal's eyes sharpened a notch when he mentioned what had happened to the Uchiha clan. What did he know about the Uchiha clan?

"It seems your mission here to see me is quite important indeed." Takashu-sama said in a more formal tone of voice, "By the way, what is your name, kid? I don't believe you introduced yourself."

"Uchiha Alexander is my name." he replied, figuring that using his abbreviated name Xander would be wrong for this situation.

"An Uchiha? You mean the Uchiha clan has been decimated?!" Takashu-sama asked in surprise and concern at the news he'd just received.

"Yes. Six years ago they were betrayed by one of their own, save for myself and Sasuke." He explained not liking the images the tragedy inspired his mind to create, "There was no warning and the traitor was the last person anyone would have expected it to be: Uchiha Itachi."

"Hmmmmm. That is indeed horrible news." Takashu-sama said with a sympathetic look on his face, "For the once great Uchiha clan to be reduced to two shadows by one of their own. It is almost too much to believe."

While he wanted to ask them if they'd concede to entering into a familial contract with him, he didn't want to seem impatient or demanding. He was, after all, a genin asking a powerful clan of animal summoning creatures to agree to lend him their strength when he summoned them to the real world. That was no small favor to ask of anyone, to come whenever asked as well as endure potential pain, and so he would not make the mistake of presuming or forcing anything.

"Very well, bouya! You will be the first in centuries to be given a chance to earn a familial contract with my clan." Takashu-sama declared with finality that dared the other eagle hawks to gainsay him, "If you succeed then you will get your familial contract and we will lend you our power when you require it. If you fail, though, neither you nor any of your line will ever be granted another chance. Do you accept these terms?"

"Yes. I accept." He replied without hesitation.

He knew that some ninja would shy away from the terms given because they wouldn't want to close themselves off from such an opportunity or prevent their descendants from trying later. However weakness was not something that was a good thing in the life of a ninja and, if he looked like he wasn't willing to put it all on the line, they might doubt his commitment. Watching their expressions, he waited for them to tell him what test or trial he had to pass in order to earn the familial contract. Would he have to fight one of the clan's warriors in order to prove his skills as a shinobi? Would it be a test of knowledge? Would it be a riddle that would require he wrack his brain for an answer? He just didn't know but he hoped that he'd be up to the challenge.

So he waited for the lord of the eagle hawk ninja clan to speak.

And waited.

And waited.

He waited some more.

It got to the point where he was wondering if this was a staring contest or something due to the lack of talking but when he saw a gleam of glee in Takashu-sama's eyes he knew something was about to happen.

"Very well then. YOU PASS!!" Declared Takashu-sama before streamers and confetti fell from someplace above.

"Huh?" Ah, so eloquent.

"You pass. Heheheheh. I bet you were expecting some kind of difficult question or a sparring match with one of my subordinates right?" Takashu-sama asked, somehow managing to smirk even though he shouldn't have been able to with a beak.

"Yeah. I mean I've read quite a few scrolls on forming contracts with the various ninja animal clans and they all imply that it isn't an easy thing to do." He replied sticking with the 'honesty is the best policy' approach.

"Normally it isn't. In the past we had both the sparring match and the question to make sure that the ninja was of sound mind and body. However it would seem the last few times we have been approached one of my subordinates, someone who has since been reassigned, ensured that the applicants failed by rigging the tests." Takashu-sama explained, sounding as though he was still upset that his minion had committed such a heinous act, "That was the main reason why the past fifteen applicants either died or were sent back to Konoha in tatters. So I've decided that for the next five applicants I'll just do a quick inquiry of their commitment and character and you've passed both requirements. You were completely honest with everything that you said and were willing to risk losing my clan's power forever. Both are good indicators of what sort of person you are."

"Well, I'm glad you approve." He said, feeling slightly odd about the whole thing but nonetheless glad that things turned out right.

"You're welcome. Now I presume that's the contract scroll you have tied to your back?" Takashu-sama said, moving forward from his group of subordinates.

"Yes it is." He said as he took the object off his back and rolled out the first three or four feet of it on the ground between him and the eagle hawk Lord.

"Good. Then let us begin." Takashu-sama said before bringing the tips of his wings together and saying, "Henge no jutsu!"

With a puff of smoke the large and royally dressed bird vanished leaving behind someone that looked more like he belonged in some sort of Anime series centered on feudal Japan. The man walked forward and knelt on the other side of the scroll before removing a needle from his clothes and using it to pierce the skin on his right thumb. Putting his right hand over the scroll he let a single drop of his blood fall onto the paper but, instead of a normal spot of red, the blood began to flow into symbols and diagrams. Boxes that he knew were there for him and his descendants to sign their names in blood began to form, followed by various depictions of eagle hawks, claws and feathers along the edge of the scroll possibly for decorative purposes or something else. Finally, as the wound on the transformed eagle hawk Lord's hand closed up, the spot where the first speck of blood hit shot outwards to form Takashu-sama's name in very fancy writing. The Lord then looked up and the meaning in his eyes obviously said 'now it is your turn' so without further adieu he bit his right thumb just enough to draw blood and began to write his name in the first slot provided. Once done, remembering the instructions from the library scroll, he tapped each of the fingers on his right hand before pressing both the fingers as well as the thumb onto the spot below his name.

With the final part done, the entire scroll began to glow with an eerie blue light before returning to normal. While this hadn't been mentioned in the scrolls, he took this to mean that the deal had been finalized and everything was ready to go a theory that was proven true when Takashu-sama rose to his feet. However it was as the man…animal…thing…**whatever**…started to turn away that, he recalled the reason why he chose the eagle hawk ninja clan in the first place.

"Um… has another Uchiha, a woman, ever left anything with you guys?" He asked a bit nervously since he might have misinterpreted the poem his mother had left him, "Like a book or a scroll or something?"

"Perhaps. Why do you ask?" Takashu-sama asked with an eyebrow raised in inquiry.

"My mother wrote a letter to me to be delivered three months after she died. She wrote a poem in the letter that led me to believe she might have left some sort of message or bit of information for me here." He replied promptly letting his desire for the info and the honesty of his words shine through.

"What does this poem say? Specifically?" Takashu-sama asked with unusual sharpness in his eyes.

With only a second or two hesitation, he told the eagle hawk Lord the entire poem from beginning to end without any sort of summarization or alteration.

"Who was your mother, bouya?" Takashu-sama asked turning back towards the American Uchiha.

"Uchiha Jun'ko." He replied, the taint of her death still lacing the words with pain and grief.

This caused a tremor of whispering amongst the eagle hawk ninja clan present and Takashu-sama looked at him now with an unidentifiable look in his eyes.

"Would you have some sort of proof that you are Jun'ko's son?" Takashu asked with tones that implied that deception would not be tolerated.

Fortunately in this case he'd come more than prepared as he pulled out not only the picture showing his mother with her team of genin but also her forehead protector. They were the only two things that belong to his mother that might work as sufficient proof that he was who he claimed to be. They were absolute proof since both objects were capable of being reproduced without too much difficulty but it was the best he could do. Fortunately, as Takashu-sama took the picture from him and looked it over carefully, it looked as though it would indeed be enough in this situation. With a look of genuine sadness, Takashu-sama returned the picture to him before turning to another of his subordinates a giving him/her a firm nod. Watching another eagle hawk ninja walk forward, he was intrigued to see the bird pull out a leather sack from within his mass of feathers and lower it to the ground beside Takashu-sama.

"This sack contains documents as well as your mother's diary. At her request we never inspected the contents of the sack and know nothing beyond what she told us before leaving eighteen years ago." Takashu-sama stated, picking up the sack and passing it to him, "She was quite uneasy when she spoke with us. Spoke of a terrible mistake that she may have made but needed to investigate further. I hope that this is indeed the truth that your mother mentioned in her letter to you, Uchiha Alexander. Farewell."

With those words his eyes were once more temporarily blinded by a bright light and, when he could see clearly again, he was once again back in his own world with no ghostly overlays whatsoever. Looking back to his hands and the ground in front of him, he was happy to see that his scroll had made the ride back and so did the sack that Takashu-sama had said was entrusted to the clan by his mother. He couldn't begin to understand the physics, metaphysics or mojo about how it happened beyond what about what made jutsus work, but he was glad that he now had what he'd come to this mountain for in the first place. His first impulse was to make for Konoha with all the speed he could squeeze out of his muscles and how the sack to Hokage-sama so his mother's name could be cleared. However the more rational part of his mind was able to establish a firm grip on his head and reminded him that it might be a good idea to inspect the so-called evidence before jumping to conclusions.

"So, I see you got them to sign on the dotted line." Hana said as she walked towards him from her spot where the anchor symbol was drawn on the ground, "What's in the sack?"

"I don't know but I plan on finding out." He said as he opened up the sack and reaching inside, "Right now."

Grabbing the first thing his hands he pulled out a single journal-sized book with a belt-like strap around it to keep it from being opened. Undoing the belt and letting it drop to the ground, he took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for what was to come, and then opened the journal.

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	15. A Past Revealed and Battles Fought

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. Everything featured in this fanfic belongs to their creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever. I write these fanfics for my own personal enjoyment and for those that enjoy reading my works. So please no messy lawsuits or anything because I can guarantee you that the costs of such a venture would vastly exceed anything you'd get from me.

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[Excerpt from the journal of Uchiha Jun'ko]

[June 12, 1972]

Today marks the first day of Chuunin Uchiha Jun'ko's journey to greatness.

Yeah right!

All it means is I get more work shoved onto me than before. Makes me wish that Tsunade-sensei was still around so that we could at least split the work between us. Just thinking about it makes me want to find someplace to hide from all the paper and ink. At least I have my friends and teammates to help make sure that life wasn't completely boring or tedious. Tsume and Shinju will be there for me if things get too boring but the one that I know will always make sure a smile is on my face is Norio. Ever since I first met him in the Academy, he's always had this way about him that makes me think things aren't so bad. Even though it's been over a decade since the end of the Second Great Shinobi War, it's always been a concern for my generation another one might start.

I suppose it's just a part of a ninja's life to always be on the edge of one battlefield or another.

But that's for tomorrow!

Tonight, though, me and the girls are going to party hard all night long to celebrate becoming Chuunins.

By the time the sun comes up, I want to be so hammered that even considering deep topics will give me a mega-migraine.

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[July 3, 1974]

Norio asked me out!!

We've been friends for years but I never knew he felt like that about me! I can't believe how scatterbrained this is making me but both Shinju and Tsume are getting a kick out of it, the traitors. Academy tests I can handle. Ninja from other Hidden Villages? A walk in the park! A guy who wants to ask me out on a date? Didn't even see it coming. Still, it could be fun.

We'll be meeting in front of the Academy gates but he hasn't told me anything about what we'll be doing but I trust that it'll be fun.

The best part is that I don't have to worry about getting in early since I don't have a mission scheduled until the sixth, so if I want to party with him until dawn then I can. Add to that the fact that I have a place of my own now and things could definitely get interesting in the future. For now, though, it'll just be a taste test period to see if we want to take things to the next level or just stay friends.

If there's one thing that I've been taught by my years as a ninja it's that scoping out an area before going in for the kill is always a good idea.

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[August 22, 1975]

A storm is brewing.

The higher ups on the village council are keeping a lid on things but things like this have a way of getting around. According to what I heard while dropping off mission report, something has the Sand Ninjas in a tizzy big time. Suna teams have been spotted in at least three places outside of their territory, with two being in Rock ninja territory. Based on the people I eavesdropped on, Sunagakure isn't answering any inquiries being sent their way.

I know it could be nothing but an itch in the back of my head is saying otherwise. I've spoken with Norio about it and he agrees that something is most definitely up with the Sand ninjas. I've promised to keep him up to date with anything my team and I run into in the field. He's promised to do likewise. Hopefully between the two of us we can figure out what's going on and put a stop to things before we wind up in a Third Great Shinobi War.

I can't endure the loss of someone else close to me thanks to one of those horrible wars.

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[December 6, 1975]

It's started.

Despite the best efforts of Hokage-sama and all Konoha ninja, Sunagakure and Iwagakure have allied themselves against Konoha and Kusagakure. We also now know the reason why the fighting is breaking out: the Third Kazekage has gone missing and Suna is convinced that either the Grass ninja or Konoha are behind it. Whether this is because of information they found or simply past grudges pointing them in such a direction, I don't know.

Whatever the case, Konoha is now at war with Sand and Rock.

At the moment all we've been ordered to do is defend the Country of Fire but not render aid to Kusagakure until ordered to otherwise by the village council or Hokage-sama. Personally, I think the best thing we could do would be to find the Third Kazekage as soon as possible as well as the real culprits behind the disappearance. If they could do that, they could prove that neither Grass or Leaf had anything to do with the kage's disappearance.

But what if Konoha or Kusagakure did have something to do with it?

NO! I might not know what goes on inside the heads of the Grass ninja but I know that the Third Hokage would never condone an act that would lead to war. He's always been focused on keeping the peace, unlike the more warmongering members of the village council. So unless some sort of faction within Konoha was behind it, then Leaf was definitely not involved in Kazekage's disappearance.

Despite being considered one of the top ninja in Konoha and a respected member of the Uchiha clan, I still don't have the head for politics so I couldn't make sense of all the maneuvering that went on at the big tables. I'll leave the strategizing to the top dogs of the village and focus on just being who I am: a ninja of Konoha.

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[March 11, 1976]

It's only been a few months since the war started and already it feels like it's been going on for years. Me, Tsume and Shinju have been going out on mission almost constantly with only a few days R&R between them. Worse thing about that is that my time off and Norio's don't always match up perfectly, so we don't get to spend as much time together as we'd like.

Still it makes the time we do get to spend together more special than anything I can think of. The sex is great, too. In fact there's this thing that he does with his tongue that—

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Xander quickly flipped through a couple of pages, not wanting to know **anything** about his mother's sex life. It was bad when something had him thinking about her and Tony. It was **still** bad when he got an image of some old boyfriend and her doing it. EW! Naturally Hana has a smirk on her face letting him know that she was finding his reactions amusing even as she read along over his shoulder.

Taking a few steps away from her and making sure to block her view of the journal with his body, he went back to reading.

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[April 19, 1977]

I got a bad feeling about the future.

I've been hearing a lot of disturbing things, both in the big meetings as well as handing off reports, and it's bothering me like one of Tsunade-sensei's pop quiz tests. From the village council we've been ordered to keep an eye out for an unidentified fourth group while out on missionsas well as exercise level C classification procedures for the foreseeable future. Level D procedures is the way things are normally run both during war time as well as during peaceful times. Level C requires that we not speak of our missions outside of secure environments, like HQ, and put seal tags on all documents we are either given or take out of secure areas. The seal tags are usually set to incinerate the document unless a specific jutsu is used to disable them.

The unidentified group thing, though, has me more worried though. Level C procedures could just be the old war hawks being paranoid but if enough ninjas have reported signs of an unseen element to the war, then it was definitely not to be joked about. Norio isn't too worried about it, though. He thinks that Danzo's paranoia is contagious and making other ninjas see things that aren't there. He says he hasn't seen anything out of the ordinary on his missions and I have to admit I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary either. Still, we've both promised to keep an eye out just in case.

If nothing else, I know I can depend on Norio.

He'll always be there for me.

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[June 19, 1978]

The war has only gotten worse and now there are signs that one of the other countries of the region has been secretly taking advantage of the war to further their own ends. Nothing so concrete as prisoner or an identifiable tool but there have been unusual corpses discovered as well as attacks on civilian villages that are obviously the work of ninja but without any clues as to what kind. This has only heightened the concerns of the Konoha village council and raised the classifications procedures to Level B, requiring a single representative from each clan be assigned the task tactical courier for a region of the Fire Country. I have been chosen to act as tactical courier of the regions assigned to the Uchiha clan and, as such, any documents of a sensitive nature needing to be taken to and from that region are to be my responsibility.

To quote the men of the Nara Clan: troublesome!

I never asked for the responsibility and, quite frankly, could do without it. When I asked the head of the my clan why I'd been selected, he said it was because of my unconventional nature and the way I had of keeping my **betters** guessing as to what I'd do next. I think it was his way of referring to all the pranks me, Tsume and Shinju pulled when we were younger along with the odd technique I'd found a new use for. I'd thought about declining or suggesting someone else who'd probably welcome the responsibility but the look in the clan head's eyes told me not to question his decision further.

So here I am stuck with one of the most important jobs in the war.

Woohoo!

Note the sarcasm.

What makes it more difficult is that since I got this job I have to be super secretive about what I'm doing when I'm on duty. I'm under orders not to tell anyone. This is not going to be fun.

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[October 22, 1978]

I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this.

It's been four months since I've been assigned this job and already I'm beginning to feel the strain of the job. Keeping secrets from my friends, having to travel alone carrying documents that people'd be willing to kill me for and interacting with that old war hawk Danzo on a regular basis were just some of the things she didn't like about her courier duties. If it wasn't for those nights I was able to be with Norio and just unload all my worries on him, I'd go insane. He's so caring and supportive! He even came up with some cool ways I could complete missions more effectively. Definitely not something I'd be willing to turn down anytime soon. In fact I think I might get together with him for some brainstorming sessions when I can and maybe I can use what we come up with to end this war sooner rather than later.

I haven't lost anyone close to me yet but it's only a matter of time before I do. I'm sure mom didn't think that she'd lose Dad in the last Great Shinobi War but he did and it's been haunting her ever since. I do what I can to reassure her before I go out on a mission but I can see the worry floating in her eyes nonetheless. All parents who have ninjas as children worry I know but the sort of fear I see is the kind that can wear a person down if it's allowed to a chance to settle. So I do all I can to keep it from gathering into one spot within her and hope that she'll live long enough to be a grandmother.

It won't be long though if Norio has his way.

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[January 21, 1979]

Looks like it might actually be worse than the old war hawks think.

We might have a traitor in our midst.

I didn't want to believe it when Norio told me that someone was funneling secrets to an enemy nation and that it was one of their fellow Konoha Shinobi who was doing it, but the evidence was troubling. He'd seen the reports of patrol teams, both the normal ones as well as a few ANBU, being ambushed in remote areas where there shouldn't have been any enemy presence at all. It didn't happen one after another and definitely not in the same place more than once but it did happen often enough that only two conclusions could be drawn: either they had a traitor in their midst or the enemy had developed a precognitive jutsu. It was unlikely that the jutsu was the answer since I've never heard of anything even remotely close existing. Jutsus so powerful didn't just spring up out of nowhere, they started out small and then grew as time went on, so it had to be a spy of some kind. I asked Norio what the higher ups were doing about it but he said that the village council had chosen to do nothing except increase precautions until solid proof of a spy could be found. They were concerned that if they acted too openly that it would only drive the spy into hiding until it was safe to emerge again.

He didn't like this idea all that much.

He thought that they should relocate the more sensitive documents to a secret location known only to three people: him, me and Hokage-sama himself. It was a logical enough course of action to take. If the spy was funneling out information, then logically it meant that he or she knew where it was located. If they put the more important documents and scrolls in a new location secretly and only informed the Third where they were, then the ambushes should go down significantly. I wanted to go and inform Hokage-sama about Norio's plan but my love said that they shouldn't until they were sure it'd succeeded. Right now all they had was a theory and some circumstantial evidence with no list of suspects to speak of. Norio didn't believe that the Third Hokage would approve of their plan until they presented him with evidence that they were right. I decided he was right after all and we've set up a schedule of sorts for secreting the documents out of the building they are stored in.

I just hope I am doing the right thing.

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[February 27, 1979]

The plan seems to be working.

We've already managed to relocate a quarter of the sensitive documents from HQ and put forgeries in their place. Thanks to my Sharingan, I've been able to copy the handwriting styles of every person who has written those documents so my copies should be indistinguishable from the real things. Only my versions conveniently left a few details out or had plans go one way when they originally went another in the real documents. My only concern was what would happen if someone caught onto their plan and jumped to the wrong conclusions. I'm not arrogant enough to think that I'm the best there is and I know that even with the abilities of my Sharingan, there are ways of seeing the truth. Norio assures me that once they get at least half of the documents to safety then there should be a noticeable decrease in ambushes that no one will be able to explain but them. It will prove that we were right to secret away the documents without telling anyone.

I have to go on a mission tomorrow though so Norio said that he'd wait until I got back before resuming the relocation of the documents.

We are truly partners, the two of us.

One cannot act without the other.

Just the way that two people in love should be

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[March 31, 1979]

It's all going wrong!!

I've been back only a week and already I wish that I had just taken the suspicions that Norio and I had straight to the Hokage. For three weeks I had been in the field with my team working with three other squads to force a group of Rock ninja back into their own lands on pain of death. It had been difficult but thankfully there had been no injuries on any of the teams so it all worked out in the end. However, when I got back, I learned that the ambushes had actually gotten worse rather than better with up to six teams being ambushed at once with the attackers knowing perfectly how to counter their techniques. The only reason why they'd learned this much was because one of the Konoha ninja knew a technique that the enemy hadn't been aware of. The news had everyone in an uproar scrambling to find out the reason for these catastrophes and reorganizing field operations in an effort to save lives.

As soon as I learned this, I went looking for Norio to find out what was going on but I'd found out an hour later that he'd volunteered to go alert the teams in the field of the danger they were in. It bothered me because I wanted to talk with him, to ask him questions and to work with him to figure out why their plan to save lives seemed to be having the opposite effect. Still, I knew that with things getting as crazy as they were now, I had no choice but to wait for him to return.

He'll be back within the next few days with the rest of the teams sent out to alert the others. I'll speak with him then so that they could come up with a way to fix things.

I hope.

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[April 10, 1979]

Almost all the scrolls are **gone!**

After three teams that had been dispatched to alert those in the field returned with Norio not with them, I began to worry that something might have happened to him. I worried that maybe the spy had ambushed him in the field to learn where the rest of the sensitive documents were so that they could be stolen as well. I didn't believe for one moment that he'd betray Konoha but I also knew that there was more than one way in this region for prying facts from the minds of others. As soon as night fell I went to the location where we'd hidden the scrolls with the intent of hiding them someplace else so that even if the enemy learned the location of the original hiding place there'd be nothing there to take.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that only two out of a total of twenty scrolls lay inside the container.

My first thought upon seeing this that it was supposed to have more documents in it and that the enemy had already been there. However there was no sign of either a struggle or forced access to the container. Were they able to pry the means of opening the box from Norio as well? I don't want to believe that such a strong ninja… that the father of my unborn child… could have been so completely defeated. It was another reason why I wanted to speak with him. I had been feeling a bit ill during the last week of my mission in the field but it'd only been in the last couple of days that I'd been able to confirm it medically. Not by going to the hospital though but rather by one of those foreign pregnancy tests. At first it had been because I'd wanted to surprise Norio myself rather than risk word of mouth spoil things. When I'd learned about the massive attacks and info leak, though, I'd kept the truth to myself so that they wouldn't keep me from going out into the field. During war times, if a female ninja was confirmed as being pregnant, they were kept within the village for the duration of the pregnancy. They couldn't risk losing the next generation of ninja. Not when they were losing people every day. Now I wonder if I'll ever get the chance to even let Norio know he's going to be a father.

I'm going to wait one more day to see if Norio comes back.

If he doesn't then… then I'll start thinking of a way to handle this mess.

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_**The Top of Mount Nanzue, One Hour Later, Hana's P.O.V**_

What do you say to a guy who just found out that his mother really was a traitor?

That was the question Hana tried to answer as she looked at Xander as he stared down at the journal containing the truth behind his Mom's departure from Konoha eighteen years ago. She hadn't been able to read all of it since he had tried to block the pages with his body but something he'd read had made him completely oblivious to everything else. It had been from then on that she'd been able to read along with him and learned how one mistake in judgment had led to a life to ruin. She knew that some people would have tried to say that it wasn't Jun'ko's fault, that she'd been manipulated by Norio from day one, but she wasn't the sort of person to sugarcoat things. Like it or not, Uchiha Jun'ko had willingly stolen classified documents from where they belonged and helped a spy deliver them to an enemy village. This action resulted in the deaths of Konoha ninja during war time and could have been a lot worse if Jun'ko and Norio's actions not been exposed when it had been. There was no escaping these facts and Xander was probably stuck in a loop thinking these same things until something happened to snap him out of it.

And snap out of it he would have to if he ever wanted to move past this moment.

"It's not the best thing you could find out about your Mom, Wannabe, but it doesn't really matter." She said, deciding to go with her strengths: bluntness and a direct way of dealing with things.

"'It doesn't matter'! I just found out that my mother's a traitor just like everyone said she was!" Xander yelled angrily, turning around to face her with those scarlet Sharingan eyes activated, "I came here hoping to find evidence that could clear her name and instead I find out my first opinion of my parents was the right one! They're pieces of shit and I'm ashamed to be their son!"

"Really? Then I guess I was right about you from the beginning too: you're an idiot!" she said, finding it irritating how emotional he was getting instead of seeing things from another angle.

"What?" Xander asked in a cold quiet tone that told her she'd hit the eye of the storm, earning some peace no matter how brief it was.

She had to take advantage of it or else things'd probably devolve into a brawl in the next minute or two with Wannabe using her as a venting tool for all the emotions running around inside his head.

"You've just read about your Mom's last days in Konoha before she had to make a run for it and all you seem to be seeing is how she's not as spotless as you thought. So what! Deal with it!" she declared, walking right up to him and staring him right in those crimson eyes of his, "You think you're the only one with sob stories or parents you'd like to pound into the ground?! DREAM ON! This is the land of the ninja where even in peace times we're losing people! Sometimes to betrayal! Sometimes to monsters! HELL! Sometimes to just plain bad luck! IT HAPPENS!"

These words looked like they were taking some of the wind out of his sails but she could tell that there was still enough fire in him to cause trouble. She had to give him something to hold onto if she was going to keep herself from having to kick his ass all the way down this mountain.

"Look, I might not have read everything you did but even I could see your Mom wasn't the piece of shit that Norio guy was. Everything she did was done to protect Konoha and the people precious to her." She said feeling a little uncomfortable sounding so… nice, "Her only mistake was falling for the wrong guy and God knows she isn't the first woman to make that mistake. Certainly won't be the last! What matters is that she stayed strong through the worst that the world had to throw at her."

She could see her words were having an effect on him but damn if she could tell whether it was the sort of change she'd been aiming for.

"Most people caught in situations like that do one of two things: let the event change them or use the event to change everything around them. Your Mom could have just accepted that she was now a rogue-nin and let that be a new identity for her or she could have let the world do with her what it would. Prison? Execution? Those would have been the two most likely outcomes." She said taking a firmer tone with Xander, "Instead she said 'TO HELL' with both of those ideas and tried to create a new life for the both of you in America. Did she blow it? I can't answer that. Only you can. If you ask me, though, she didn't completely screw it up if you're the result. Think about it."

Turning away from him, she let out a whistle to let her girls know it was time to head back. The three of them had decided to play 'tag' with Xander's pet feather duster while the whole contacting ritual was being performed and Wannabe would probably get an earful later about it. She had to smirk about how the bird now owed her for cooling off its partner before it got back, otherwise the beak brain would probably get turned into a bucket of eagle hawk wings, extra crispy style. She wasn't sure how she'd make the pre-pillow stuffing animal pay up but she was sure she'd come up with something sooner or later. Hearing footsteps from behind her, she knew her team leader was approaching her but she pretended not to hear a thing. She'd said her piece and now it was his turn to do some of the work.

She could see out of the corner of her eye that he'd come to a stop right beside her and was looking out at the landscape below them but she sorta doubted that he was actually seeing anything. She didn't know what it meant but she hoped it implied that he was almost past the whole temper tantrum phase that seemed to pop after big revelations like this. She also hoped that he didn't become a brooder who constantly questioned who he was and why he existed because, if he did turn into someone like that, then she was becoming a Chuunin as soon as possible just so she could get away from him. As the minutes passed she began to get impatient with the fact that he wasn't giving her any outward signs that he'd finished thinking. She wanted to start getting back home to Konoha because, even if they managed to trim a day or two off their travel time, they'd still get back with only a little over a week until the final matches started. He'd need every minute of it to master the Summoning Technique so he could fire it off at the drop of a hat, if not faster, considering who his opponents would be in the first round of the final matches.

So what the hell was taking him so long!?!

"'Is it who you were that matters or who you are'?" Xander asked just low enough that she figured he was just talking to himself rather than directing his inquiry at her.

"What?" she asked, not wanting to left wondering what he'd meant all the way home.

"Just something a character from a show said once when it was hinted he might have once been a bad guy before he lost his memory and became a good guy." Xander replied, finally turning his head to look at her with eyes lacking Sharingan, "It made me realize that what I've learned here today doesn't really change anything. I'm still me and, even if I'd known this back in Sunnydale, I still would have brought her ashes to Konoha to be buried. I still would have wanted to become a better ninja. All this means is that I can finally leave the past behind and start planning for the future. A future my mom would be proud of."

_Looks like even he can say something smart, eventually._ She thought with an approving smile since it pretty much cemented the fact that she wouldn't have to deal with a brooder on the trip back.

"I even have one plan that I'm going to see through no matter what." Xander said in a tone that caused her to worry.

"What's that?" she asked wondering whether or not she really wanted to know or not.

"I plan follow my Mom's example of unconventional and unexpected ways of doing things. Whether its techniques, strategies or just everyday things." Xander replied with an ambitious smile on his face, "By the time I'm done, no one's going to look at being a ninja the same way ever again!"

_Yep! Definitely something I could have gone without knowing that little tidbit!_ She thought as her imagination began producing predictions of how Wannabe's plan would affect her.

She knew that he could simply mean finding new uses for known jutsu or maybe abolishing some of the obsolete policies of the village that old people on the council insisted on keeping around. However, after seeing the smile on his face, she couldn't help but believe that what Xander meant would be far more shocking than that and it would only mean trouble for the rest of Team Anko. No matter what, a cold shiver had just gone up and down her spine in a way that was not good.

Seeing Hagane, Ishina and Seirei approaching with Ava flying high above them, she decided that worrying about what went on inside Xander's head could wait 'til later.

When she was prepared to both comprehend it and find a way to keep herself safe from it.

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_**Country of Wind, Hidden Sand Village, Outside the Chambers of Kazekage, One Week Later**_

_**Baki's P.O.V**_

_Damn that Uchiha!_ Baki thought as he tested the pain of his wound from two weeks ago, _I don't know what kind of jutsu he used but it won't work on me a second time!_

It was a sore subject for him but, fortunately for his reputation, only a few people that knew the full extent of his problem and he'd made sure to impress upon them the 'wisdom' of keeping the important facts to themselves. From what he could tell, wounds from the kunai had pretty much healed if a bit tender and the bruises from those taijutsu techniques had all but faded. However the worst of the wounds, the damage that had been done to his pride, still lingered and just thinking about it brought the memories back to him unwanted though they may be.

It had been a scheduled meeting with the representative from the Hidden Village of Sound, one where he'd be informed of the details of the impending attack, where he'd lay down the terms as given to him by Kazekage-sama. It was a difficult situation made all the more perilous by the need for secrecy and he'd made it clear to Kabuto that Sand would not reveal themselves until the last possible moment. With Sound being a relatively new Hidden Village, they had fewer watchers and so could move about more freely. Sand, on the other hand, had been around for as long as the other major villages in the region and, as such, had many watchers keeping an eye on their movements. Also, due to the treaty between Sunakagure and Konoha, they lacked the strength of old. It was why they had been willing to accept the partnership since neither of them possessed the strength to defeat Konoha on their own but both possessed a desire to see their hated enemy burn. It had been during this meeting that he'd sensed the presence of another and concluded that the Sound ninja had picked up a stalker. The unsettling man from Sound declared that he would deal with the problem but, in the interests of giving Orochimaru one more reason to keep his end of the bargain, he had stated that he would deal with the uninvited guest personally.

A little something to whet the appetite before the real battle occurred.

It had been a good chase and, while still fated to die at his hands, the Konoha Jounin was a respectable ninja possessing an admirable amount of skill for someone so young. Using an A rank technique at the age of twenty-three was quite a feat indeed but it was not enough to penetrate the flak jacket he'd been wearing very deeply. He had been on the verge of unleashing his own A rank jutsu when the light and sounds of a lightning ninjutsu reached his ears forcing him to cancel his own technique while leaping backwards to evade the incoming jutsu. It had at first been annoying when he saw the Genin from the preliminary matches, the newly discovered Uchiha, land on the roof, looking ready to aid his fellow Konoha Shinobi. The boy had possessed some skill and a tactical mind with how he managed to manipulate the fat ninja into just the right position to take him down. Still, no matter what potential the young man might've had, he was still nowhere near his level so he'd believed that all the new arrival meant was one more annoyance to deal with.

He had been mistaken.

The two-on-one battle had been more of a challenge then he'd thought it would be with the young man providing an unpredictable offense while the Jounin provided a distraction when needed. The two of them switched roles occasionally but the stronger of the two definitely remained on the defensive more often than not. As the seconds ticked by and the two failed to fall, he began to get annoyed but he didn't let it influence him because he knew all to well the dangers of using some of the higher ranked jutsu he knew. When he'd first identified the boy, he'd known about the Sharingan but wasn't concerned. Having a kekkai genkai was one thing but using it to its fullest potential was another matter all together. Add to that the fact that the boy lacked the physical attributes to keep up with him and he'd simply increased the amount of effort he'd been putting into the fight. It had worked.

For a few minutes, at least.

In the end, though, the combination of the powerful Sharingan and the Jounin's own abilities had forced his hand. He'd known the moment he'd engaged the Jounin in battle that he'd only have a limited amount of time to slay the fool. Where he might have been required to make the death quick as well as clean, he'd known his enemy would not be under similar restrictions. Indeed it would be to the mouse's benefit to not only draw out the battle as long as possible but also to use as many high level techniques as possible. Such a strategy was sound because it would increase the chances of their battle being noticed by others, making it possible that reinforcements might come. With the arrival of the Uchiha, the chances of this doubled forcing him to use the higher level techniques he'd avoided in the beginning. It had been his belief that a massive show of power could overwhelm the duo in an instant allowing, him to leave with only debris left behind for others to find. He'd been pleased when his use of the Kaze no Yaiba technique had brought the Jounin to his knees and the Uchiha close to collapse. Victory had been at hand but then something had happened that he had not foreseen. A black and smokey chakra began to flow from the young Uchiha with an unpleasant feel to it that had prompted him to wait a moment to get a better idea of what he was facing.

He soon received all the information he needed in order to form a better opinion of the situation.

Thoughts were then forced to quicken and chakra became something absolutely essential to simple survival never mind actually defeating the boy.

Then, minutes later, as though his strings were suddenly cut, the boy seemed to come under assult from some sort of biological attack. Pain, convulsions and muscle spasms wracked the Uchiha's body as he lay on the ground. If he had been in better shape at the time, he'd have finished both the Genin and his original prey but, unfortunately, the injuries he'd received up until that moment made escape more of a priority than silencing the two that had been on the ground before him. Even if he had killed the duo, it wouldn't have mattered if he'd been seen there by more Konoha ninjas. There would have been too many questions that he didn't have answers for or at least no answers that would either stand up to scrutiny. Anything he could devise off the top of his head would also be insufficient to keep Konoha from becoming extra cautious in the next week or so.

So, despite the damage it did to his shinobi pride, he fled the scene with all reasonable haste.

Now, two weeks later, he was about to meet with Kazekage-sama to personally deliver the plans of the Hidden Village of Sound to his Lord so that they could co-ordinate their own activities accordingly. He knew all too well that simply diving into a battle, even with allies, would not necessarily lead to victory especially if they stumbled over each other in their quest to destroy Konoha. Thus every move had to be planned out to perfection because they would get no second chance at this and failure would mean a counterattack they would not be able to withstand.

Raising his head, he heard the door to office of the Fourth Kazekage open and one of his attendants indicate that it was time for him to enter. Steeling himself so as to ensure that no sign of his injuries would be perceivable to anyone, even Kazekage-sama, he rose to his feet and strode towards the doorway.

Entering the room, he professionally he walked to the cushion reserved for guests and knelt with his head bowed, showing the proper respect for the leader of his village.

"I appreciate your work, Baki." Kazekage-sama said after a minute of silence.

"Thank you, Kazekage-sama." He said glad that news of his failure two weeks prior had apparently not reached his Lord's ears just yet, "As planned, the three have advanced to the main matches my Lord."

"The agreement with the Sound is proceeding smoothly?" asked the Fourth from behind the curtain separating him from the rest of the room.

"Yes." He replied before retrieving the scroll he'd been given by Kabuto from the inside of his vest, "This is the scroll with Sound's plans.

He put it on the floor before him since it was against protocol for anyone, even a high ranking Jounin like him, to get any closer than he was at this very moment. Watching as one of the Fourth's subordinates on his side of the curtain picked up the scroll and carried it over to the curtain, where it was taken within by an advisor, he waited. From what he could see, the leader of the Hidden Village of Sand was not going to read the scroll immediately but that mattered little to him. What his Leader did was his own business. However, as he was the lead scout for the invasion and given what he'd encountered two weeks ago in Konoha, there was a matter he felt needed to be addressed.

"Do you have something else to say?" Kazekage-sama asked, obviously having guessed what was occurring behind his eyes.

"Is it possible to fake a training session so that we can arrange to move troops near the boarder?" he asked, believing that the plans of his village needed to be amended a bit in light of his encounter with the Uchiha, "The four of us alone might…"

"Konoha is not stupid." Said one of the advisors from behind the curtain, "Their ANBU members are moving around."

"If we do as you say then they will discover our intentions," explained the second advisor, sounding certain of his words.

"But with our current force…" he said while trying to conceive an argument that would sway things his way.

"That is why we made Gaara and the two go. The restoration of the Hidden Village of Sand's dignity depends on **your** performance." Said the Fourth Kazekage with an unusual tone, "Now, go. Go and remember what is at stake in this venture. Both for the village as a whole and for **you** personally."

He **knew!**

Somehow, despite his efforts to keep it a secret, Kazekage-sama knew of his failure to eliminate both the Uchiha boy and the Konoha Jounin. The only thing his continued freedom and participation in the invasion meant was that there had been no sign in the past two weeks to indicate that their targeted village had learned of the plan. Indeed there must not have been even an indication that they suspected something foul was in the works or else he had little doubt he would have been removed from the mission for some reason. While it was possible that his leader believed that his removal would have only made the Third Hokage suspicious considering his team was in the final matches, he chose to hope for the best. So, without further delay, he left the room and began to make preparations for his return to Konoha so he could see how Temari, Kankuro and Gaara had faired in his absence.

It would be trouble if the invasion's trump card had deteriorated too much in his absence.

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_**Konoha Village, The Street Nearest to the Konoha Stadium, The Next Day, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Note to self: pace yourself when practicing the Summoning Technique._ Xander thought as he strolled down the street past the stadium where he would fight in under a week.

It had been a long trip back from the mountain and he'd only gotten back with Hana late the previous night. As a result, both of them had gone straight to bed, although he was the more fatigued given how much chakra he'd used in the preceding hours. Between his continued weight training and practicing Kuchiyose no Jutsu, he'd been maxed out with the early signs of chakra exhaustion. It happened occasionally according to Anko, who'd been watching TV when he'd walked in the door, debating whether or not to just sleep in his clothes tonight. It wasn't serious and usually the body naturally acted to prevent things from becoming potentially fatal but the purple-haired Jounin advised him not to make a habit of it since it could mean trouble for him down the line. From there it'd been sleep city until two hours prior when he'd gotten up, ate and then decided to stretch his legs a bit before he went back to planning for victory in the main matches. His two weeks of weight training with Maito Gai's gravity enhancing jutsu had increased his physical prowess by quite a bit with, Hana helping out by adding some sparring to the usual workout routine. He'd pretty much mastered the Summoning technique to the point where he could form all the hand signs inside of three seconds and bring one of the Eagle Hawk ninja clan into this world, even during a fight. The hard part, though, was getting a handle on how much chakra was needed to summon a certain type of bird ninja or more than one of them in one go. That had been one of the reasons why him and Hana hadn't been able to cut any time off of their return trip like they'd planned. Just getting one of those birds to pop up that was a reasonable size and possessed sufficient skill to be useful to him was hard enough but exploring the limits of what he could do had really worn him out those first couple of days. Now, though, he had the proverbial ace up his sleeve he'd been looking for since the day the final matches were announced but since he had some time on his hands he'd see if he could go a bit further.

After all, why be content with one ace up the sleeve when you could have two?

For the moment, though, he'd just enjoy the morning and then, when noon came around, he'd spin by Ichiraku Ramen for a bowl or three before resuming his preparations for the final matches. He was almost at the northern gate when his ears picked up a commotion that did not sound like the sort you'd get from people having fun. No, this was the sort of ruckus that you got when something unexpected and particularly distressing popped up with no one really sure how to handle it. Intrigued, he picked up the pace of his walking to something just shy of a light jog so he could see what the cause of it all was before the village authorities got involved or the crowd got too big. The first thing he spotted was someone, he couldn't tell who, leaning against the side of the northern gate as though they needed to catch their breath and regain some strength. Two Chuunin who're on gate duty rushed from their post to the side of the person whom he was now close enough to identify as been not only female but there was also something familiar about the woman. It wasn't until he was close enough to make out all the fine details of the person that he recognized the young woman and this caused him to break out into a complete run to the blonde beauty's side.

"Ayeka! What happened?!" he asked, kneeling down next to her while sort of taking stock of her physical condition.

She was, to be perfectly honest, a complete mess.

Her clothes were dirty and torn like she'd been dragged behind a truck that was moving fairly fast. However there weren't any serious cuts consistent with something like that, only smaller scrapes and bruising, which made him think bush or tree branches or something. He didn't think she had any broken bones since she managed to walk up to the gates but she was most definitely exhausted with her hair in disarray and her make up almost completely wiped or washed off. He recalled Anko-sensei saying something last night about whether he met up with his blonde teammate but he'd been too tired to answer coherently much less ask what she meant.

He now realized that she must have hightailed it after him and Hana after she learned of the trip to make a familial contract with the Eagle Hawk Ninja Clan. Considering how the girl was determined to marry him, it wasn't difficult to figure out what must have gone through her head when she heard that he and Hana had left together. There were times when he just wanted to make it clear to the beautiful bombshell that jealousy and cornering the market in Uchiha Xander wasn't the way to get on his good side. Not that he hated her or anything, she was actually already in his mental category of 'his girls', but he really wasn't sure whether or not he'd ever try to take things to the next level.

Right now, though, he was sure about one thing: she needed to see a doc, ASAP.

Ignoring the protests of the Chuunin, he picked her up as gently as he could in his arms then began to make for the Konoha Hospital as quickly as safety would allow him to. There were a few times he had to do some wall running to make it past a particularly dense group of people but he never stayed there for long. It took him a while but, before long, he charged through the doors of the hospital, startling the staff as well as the few villagers sitting in the waiting room. It didn't take the nurses long to see what was the matter and soon Ayeka was on a hospital gurney being wheeled towards an examination room.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Asked the medical-nin who entered, looking ready to give the princess of projectiles a once over.

"All I know us that she left Konoha about two weeks ago and just got back a couple of minutes ago looking like this." He replied, trying to figure out just how his teammate had gotten so thrashed.

"Doesn't look too serious but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to step outside." Said the medical-nin as he slipped on a pair of plastic gloves, "Patient privacy."

"No problem." He said figuring that she wasn't banged up seriously enough for him to be too worried and the doc sounded like he knew his stuff.

Leaving the examination room, he knew that either the Chuunin at the northern gate or the hospital staff would let Anko and Hana know that Ayeka was there. All he could do was wait on the bench outside the examination room and way for the medical-nin to finish his examination. Sitting there with little to occupy his mind, he began to wonder once more what could have happened to the self-proclaimed future wife of Uchiha Alexander that could have messed her up like this. It was a safe bet that when she'd left the village, she'd taken with her as many of the comforts of home as she could seal in a scroll or carry on her back. Those things had been missing upon her return to the village, making him wonder if she'd run into trouble and been robbed. A possibility, albeit not a very likely one considering how skilled he knew her to be but, while she wasn't officially a Chuunin herself, he liked to think she could hold her own in a fight. At least up until she fought against a Jounin and then she'd get her butt kicked six ways from Sunday, but any Jounin that'd attack a Konoha ninja wouldn't have let her live. While there was a one in a million chance she might have been able to pull something off to make the enemy think she'd died or something, he didn't like the odds of that being the case.

It was about ten minutes before he saw both Anko and Hana coming down the hall but it made for good timing since about the same time the medical-nin came out of the examination room.

"So, what's up doc?" he asked, all but refraining from doing his Bugs Bunny impression.

Given the grimace that came over the face of the medical-nin, though, he'd been the receiver of this sort of routine a little too often.

"Well, aside from some bruising and a moderate case of exhaustion, Ms. Mishima is none the worse for wear. No broken bones and no internal injuries that I could find." Replied the medical-nin after glaring at Xander for a moment, "While she wasn't coherent enough to answer questions due to her fatigue, I couldn't find anything to indicate she'd been a fight with another ninja. We'll have to wait until she's had a chance to rest a bit before we can learn more."

"How long do you figure she needs?" Anko asked, looking relieved that her student wasn't seriously hurt.

"At least until this evening but that's just for her to be conscious enough to answer questions." Replied the medical-nin as he took a look at a handful of papers in his hand, "For a full recovery, I'd say she'll be good as new by the time the main matches begin."

It was a relief to hear that his initial diagnosis, the one that said she only had minor bruises and bangs, was right on the money. It might not enough to get him his medical-nin license but it was always a useful skill for a ninja to have to be able to accurately assess the health of his teammate. Yep! Having good judgment in the field and at home was definitely a good thing to have.

It must be a sign that his environment had a bigger say in his upbringing than his genetics since the contents of his mother's journal seemed to indicate that neither of his parents had excellent judgment.

His parents…

He'd been thinking about the contents of his mother's journal, along with everything else in the sack he'd gotten from the Eagle Hawk ninja Clan, ever since they'd left the mountain. He'd gone there originally hoping to find some sort of proof or evidence that could clear his mother of the title of traitor. Instead he'd found information that would **at best** have the people of Konoha remove the label of traitor only to replace it with 'trecherous, lovesick fool'. It was debatable which was worse. If she remained the traitor then at least she would still be respected as ninja even if the public hated her for what she did eighteen years ago. If he brought this new evidence to light, she would still likely be seen as a traitor since it was because of her actions that sensitive information got into the hands of the enemy. Only they would respect her less since it'd mean that she betrayed her village without knowing it and all because she treasured her relationship with Norio more than what her ninja training had probably been whispering in her mind the entire time. Some would be more understanding but he had a feeling that those people would be in the minority as far as the population of Konoha was concerned. Friends and loved ones would likely be more understanding, if a little hurt that Jun'ko didn't come to them if she was worried about something this big. The rest of the village would probably still hate her the same as always only with a bit more sarcasm and sneering in their voices when they chose to speak about her.

These were the things that he'd thought about off and every hour on the hour since he'd finished reading the journal. Hana's words on the mountaintop might have taken some of the anger out of his sails about the situation, even made sure that the past wouldn't have any bearing on his future, but he'd still had doubts about turning over the contents of the sack over to Hokage-sama. To reveal the truth or to keep it concealed so that no more shame was dumped on her memory. That was the question. In the end, though, he knew that honesty would be the best policy since it would only look bad if this info came out later on and people asked him why he didn't come forward earlier.

"Anko-sensei? I have something I need to hand over to Hokage-sama." He said, looking at the Jounin teacher of his team, "Could you come with me?"

For a moment she looked at him, wondering why she had to come with him for something like that but he knew the instant she saw the seriousness in his eyes she'd come. They'd gotten to know one another since he'd come to Konoha, both in a student-teacher way as well as roommates, and he saw her as a sort of big sister (mostly because he was sure she'd kill him if he called her 'auntie'). He wasn't sure precisely what she thought of him but he'd like to think she thought of him as a friend. As such, he wasn't surprised to see her nod and put on a more serious look for what was about to happen.

"You want me to come too, Wannabe?" Hana asked catching onto what was going to happen.

"Sure. The more the merrier." He replied, figuring that the Inuzuka girl would probably find a way to tag along with or without his permission.

With that they left for Hokage Tower in order to set the record of Uchiha Jun'ko straight once and for all.

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_**Hokage Tower, Office of the Third Hokage, Noon, Sarutobi Hiruzen's P.O.V**_

_Looks like it's going to be quite a show in a week's time._ Thought the Third as he looked through the list of VIPs who sent acceptance replies to their invitations to the final matches.

Not that there the last Chuunin selection Exam was lacking in spectators, but there were quite a few newcomers this time around that hadn't attended an Exam in years. Then again, he supposed that the fact that there were two Uchiha and Sand's Gaara participating would be enough to pique the interest of the new VIPs. He'd been kept up to date by both Kakashi and Anko on the progress of both Uchiha and what he'd been told was enough to make him as eager as anyone else to see the results of their training. Both had gone the extra mile with their training by learning techniques that went beyond what ninja of their years should have been able to master. Not surprising, considering they were of the Uchiha clan. The Uchiha had always been one of the most powerful clans in Konoha, both because of their kekkai genkai and because of the aptitude for the ninja arts. While Xander was still a bit behind his cousin Sasuke in mastering his Sharingan, the young man from America had an advantage in knowledge thanks to the Halloween incident that informed him of his heritage. It'd be an interesting fight if the two of them wound up squaring off against one another but both would have to overcome some stiff opposition before that could happen. Sasuke would have to defeat both Gaara and whoever won the match between Hyuuga Neji and Naruto. Xander, on the other hand, would have to beat Temari of the Hidden Sand Village as well as Nara Shikamaru and whoever won the match between the Sand ninja Kankuro and Aburame Shino. A stiff climb indeed for Uchiha Alexander, but it would only aide the young man in proving himself a valuable addition to the ninja of Konoha. He knew that many considered the member of Team Anko to be skilled for making it to the final matches in the first place, so if Alexander managed to make it to the last match or won the whole thing, then it would be quite the feather in his cap. Gaining the rank of Chuunin would only be the icing on the cake. There would still be a few hold outs amongst the village council, his former teammates and Danzo being the leaders of that group, but he was confident that he could persuade them to leave Xander alone.

He knew where enough skeletons were buried to keep all three from attempting anything that went beyond their legal rights and job description.

He didn't like the fact that he had to use such tactics against his former teammates but, over the past few years, they had been more in favor of Danzo's way of thinking than his. He supposed that he couldn't really blame them. They'd grown up during a rough time where a more militant point of view was not only wise, it was downright essential. Koharu in particular did not seem to believe in his own philosophy called the 'Will of Fire', wherein even the smallest leaf was a precious thing to be protected. She believed that it was the welfare of the whole that mattered most and that it was acceptable to sacrifice an individual or a group of individuals if it ensured the survival of the group as a whole. While experience had taught him that life sometimes required a ninja to make horrible choices, choices that would keep them up some nights, it was his hope to keep those choices to a minimum for everyone. This meant seeking peaceful resolutions with both allies and enemies whenever something threatened to cause conflict between either or both. He liked to think he was successful most of the time but the few times he'd failed… well, those times proved to be incentive enough to make sure he didn't fail again.

He was about to prepare for a meeting he would have with his councilors when the door to his office opened to admit Anko and two of the students under her command. One of which was the very same American Uchiha that he'd been thinking about mere moments ago, but the boy had a look on his face that implied that this visit was not going to be a good one.

"Xander-san! To what do I owe this visit?" he asked, trying to start things off on a light foot.

"I have something here I think you should see. My Mother hinted about it in a letter she left for me back in Sunnydale and I figured it meant given something into the care of the Eagle Hawk ninja clan." Xander replied as he laid down a sack on his desk before taking a step back, "I talked with them and got this sack. It contains Jun'ko's journal, probably the last one she had before leaving for the USA, as well as some documents that I think you'll find interesting."

Curious as to what the young man meant, he opened the sack and removed the first item his hands found inside. It was a journal with a strap wrapped around the middle to keep it shut. Undoing the strap, he opened it up and confirmed that it did indeed belong to Uchiha Jun'ko since the writing within matched what he'd seen in reports that the woman had submitted in the past. Picking the earliest entry, he began to read and learned of the final years of a woman who'd been labeled a traitor simply because she'd chosen the wrong person to fall for. He read how Jun'ko's love had blinded her to Norio's subtle manipulations and her side of the final days she spent in the village she'd been born in. While not the revelation he'd hoped for when he'd first opened the journal, it would lift some of the stain from the reputation of Xander's mother.

Enough, perhaps, to finally deliver an inheritance into the hands of its rightful owner.

For now, though, he would do what he could to let the future participant of the final matches of the Chuunin Exam know that his discovery was not a waste of time.

"This was indeed interesting, Xander, and it answers many questions I had about her behavior back then." He said before taking a look at the rest of the documents in the sack, "Nevertheless, while your mother may have been deceived, she still stole sensitive documents and aided in putting them into the hands of Konoha's enemies. With this information I might be able to convince the people to see her in a better light but I cannot exonerate her of crimes."

"I figured as much." Xander said grimly, understanding the realities of the situation, "Anything you can do would be appreciated."

Looking at the documents, it didn't take him long to recognize the documents as detailed deployment files listing the names of each ninja that had been assigned a field location during the latter half of the Third Great Ninja War. During the investigation into Norio and Jun'ko, they'd managed to identify most of the documents that they'd taken based on a thorough search as well as the events that happened in the field. However, even at the end they had suspicions that they may have missed a few either because they didn't have field information to point them in the right direction or some of the forgeries were pretty damn good. This revelation, though, explained why they'd suddenly been able to turn the tide against the forces assaulting Konoha ninja in the field. If an enemy wanted information on the deployment of Konoha's forces, then naturally they would require two things: a list of locations and the identities of the ninja stationed at each location. The attacks supported the theory that they'd gotten the document detailing the locations of each group of shinobi but, when the attacks themselves occurred, the results varied. Some Konoha ninja teams were successfully wiped out but others successfully defeated their attackers without much difficulty. While some had hoped that this would mean they would learn the identity of the Hidden Village that Norio had been in league with, none of the attackers carried anything that could pin down their origin. Interrogation, unfortunately, was rendered impossible since, moments before any of the captured ninja could be restrained, they ingested a fast acting poison that turned them into lifeless corpses inside of fifteen seconds. Norio was equally quick to commit suicide before the ANBU ninja could stop him but there were signs that the filth could have been fed the poison without his knowledge.

Whatever the case, the matter had been put to rest after four months of investigation with no new evidence to aid them in getting the complete story.

With these documents, though, it was clear that the reason they'd been able to turn matters around was because the enemy hadn't gotten ahold of the files of the ninja deployed in the field. Without them, the attacking forces might have been able to prepare for the number of foes they'd been facing but ranks of each shinobi or what techniques they favored had not been at their disposal. A critical mistake but one that made him wonder why they had not delayed their plans until they had all of the necessary files in their possession. Did they have a timetable that they had to adhere to? Something that made it impossible for them to slow down in the slightest to await the files to arrive? Or perhaps the person or persons in charge of the operation had become overconfident or impatient. Valid possibilities.

He was just about to dismiss the members of Team Anko when the door to his office opened once more to admit both of his councilors and former teammates. It was both good timing and the beginning of what would be a difficult argument for him, considering what he planned to do now that he had the evidence to back his decision. Still, now that there was someone of legal age, both in the eyes of Konoha as well as elsewhere in the world, in the Uchiha clan who was closely related to the head family things could finally be made right, if only in a minor way.

"I thank you for handing me this information, Xander." He said with a smile on his face, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to begin."

"Of course, Hokage-sama." Xander said as he and his team began to walk towards the door.

He could tell the precise moment that Xander and Koharu's eyes met because it was then that both of them gave the other a clear 'I do not like you and probably never will' glare. Personally, he blamed this on his former teammate since the American Uchiha was too new to Konoha for him to have a reason to dislike the member of the village council. Hopefully the evidence that Xander had just provided him with would lessen the animosity she felt towards the member of Team Anko. After all, the level of hate one felt for a fool in love had to be less than what a person would feel for someone they believed had knowingly betrayed their village, right?

"What was the **Uchiha** doing here, Third?" Koharu asked, making her opinion of the Uchiha clan and its members clear.

This was not going to be a pleasant explanation at all.

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_**Konoha Hospital, West Wing, Six Days Later, Afternoon, Ayeka's P.O.V**_

_If I'd known that getting banged up like this would get me some private time with Xander-sama, I would've gotten myself thrashed weeks ago._ Ayeka thought as she looked at where her future sat reading through a scroll he'd taken out from the village library.

While she preferred that he come to her and spend all day either talking to her or trying to make her more comfortable, the fact that he was he was willing to compromise his training like this was a good sign as far as she was concerned. While some might choose to interpret it as simply a teammate feeling concern for one that has been hurt, she knew that this situation between her and Xander was different. Hana and Anko came by as well but only for an hour or so before going about their daily routine. Xander-sama, however, was here pretty much the entire day and even brought her a bowl of ramen from Ichiraku's place when he went by there. Of course it was only after the first two or three days after she'd staggered back to Konoha and then regained consciousness that he'd been restricted to scrolls. Prior to that, he'd snuck a training dummy into her room and had used it to practice his taijutsu with but that idea had bit the dust after being visited by the hospital administrator. While Xander had offered to make his training quieter, the old goat had refused and delivered a single ultimatum: either the training dummy would be in the room or Xander would but not both.

The dummy, of course, was the one that got tossed.

Still, she had a feeling that her future husband still tried to squeeze some taijutsu training in at night because, at least twice so far, she'd caught him two steps shy of dozing off. She teased him a bit about it but he just gave her that lopsided smile of his that made her heart flutter and said that his roommates were keeping him awake. While it was true that Anko-sensei and Kurenai-san did have the occasional loud party (something that the neighbors complained about), she doubted that this was the reason for his fatigue. Kurenai-san would be busy training Shino, so the odds of her partying would be equal to Hana-no-bitch showing an interest in stylish clothes and make-up. In other words, it'd be possible but highly out of character for Kurenai-san. It made her love her future husband all the more that he'd be willing to endure such a complicated training regime with so many obstacles just to spend time with her. Still, she hoped that he wasn't pushing himself too far because her. After all, the main matches were the next day and he'd need a good night's rest if he wanted to give his best when facing his foes. She'd already heard who his foes were and while she wasn't worried about his chances of winning he didn't want him to have too hard a time beating them.

She wouldn't be able to give him his victory present if he wound up in the hospital after the last match.

She was about to ask him some questions so she could ensure that the preparations for the victory party were perfect when he suddenly stood up from his chair and began to look about sharply. It looked like he sensed something serious but, when she stretched out her own chakra sensing abilities, along with those senses she'd honed for projectile throwing, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. However, Xander-sama had a look on his face that implied something was seriously wrong and seeing him roll up the scroll he'd been reading before putting it in the stack on the beside table where the rest were.

"Ayeka, I need to check something out but I'll be back in a couple minutes, okay?" He asked with obvious rhetoric since he looked like he was going to leave no matter what she said, "Anything you want me to bring back?"

"A Coca-Cola would be nice." She replied with a small smile the likes of which a wife would give her husband after giving him a short grocery list to pick up on the way home.

She managed to keep the giggles down until he left the room.

The look in his eyes had been so amusing.

As the minutes passed, she decided to try and plan out the victory celebration, since she'd undoubtedly need to make some reservations, given the likelihood of other people having the same idea as her. Reserving a seat at the barbeque place sounded like a good start since, after the final matches, Xander-sama would have a serious need to replenish lost chakra. After that she could convince him to go with her to the various Konoha night spots for entertainment as well as drinks. She knew that he didn't really like alcohol all that much, but she knew enough tasty drinks that didn't have a lot of booze in them from her time trying to seduce various guys from the major families in Konoha. She was sure there was at least one that he'd like and, once she was sure he was sufficiently loosened up by a combination of fatigue and drink, she'd invite him to a hotel room nearby.

There she'd claim him for her own in more ways than one.

After an hour had gone by, though, she began to worry since she doubted that things were so busy that it'd take him this long to get back. Was there really something serious going on? Nonsense! Konoha was one of the five strongest ninja villages in the entire region and had to its name some of the most famous ninja around. The odds of someone or a group of people were causing problems were slim to say the least and she would have heard something herself if something was up.

Then again, she'd heard the about what Xander-sama had found in the journal and, if his mother could stay under the radar of Konoha's police force and ANBU for years, who's to say others couldn't do the same.

In the end her anxiety over the possible reasons for her future husband not returning got the better of her and she threw the covers off her body. Getting out of the bed and slipping on the slippers she'd had Xander-sama get from home, she strode over to the door intent on finding out where he'd gone. However, no sooner did she reach out for the door handle than it slid open to reveal the very Uchiha she sought with a can of Coca-Cola in his right hand. The look on his face was not of someone that had had been able to go about his business without problems or even a person who'd encountered a particularly troublesome situation. Instead Uchiha Xander looked as though he'd seen something that had seriously unsettled him and he was only gradually getting a grip on what he'd experienced. He barely even registered her presence as he returned to the chair he'd occupied for half the day already and sat down on autopilot.

This didn't do good things for her anxiety level.

"Xander? What's wrong?"

He didn't respond. He just put the can of Coca-Cola on the bedside table next to her bed.

"Xander?" she asked again albeit a little louder than before in order to make sure he heard her.

This finally managed to snap him out of whatever cycle of thought he'd been in and, seeing the concern on her face, tried to put on his usual lopsided smile. However she gave him a look that clearly showed that she didn't believe the 'nothing is the matter' façade he was trying to put up in front of her. When he sighed in defeat, she knew that she'd get the truth out of him and so waited patiently on her bed.

"You know I left to check something out but I didn't tell you then what that something was." Xander explained, his eyes gaining an introspective look to them, "I don't really know how to describe it aside from a feeling of unnaturalness that doesn't belong amongst the rest of us. I've… felt it a few times before but never as bad as I did an hour ago. I was worried about what was going on so I went to try and find the source, even if I only wound up getting a face or name to put to the feeling. I wound up getting both a name and a face, 'cause the feeling I was getting comes from a person."

"Who?" she asked, concerned about the idea of someone possessing the ability to worry Xander-sama like this.

"Gaara of the Hidden Village of Sand." Xander replied, looking her in the eye and letting her see just how much the encounter had affected him.

After hearing the name of the person who'd spooked her future husband so much, she couldn't find fault with the way he reacted since she was sure she'd have found an encounter with Gaara unsettling as well. She'd seen how that freak had fought against Rock Lee during the preliminary matches and had heard stories about the Sand ninja afterwards. She wasn't entirely convinced that the redhead was completely human or that he wasn't some sort of Sand ninja experiment, but the gourd-carrying kid was definitely not someone she wanted to spend any amount of time with. If Xander-sama was this rattled, though, something more must have happened because she knew the Uchiha hadn't acted this way after the last of the preliminary matches at The Tower.

"What happened? You didn't act this weirded out at the Tower." She said, voicing her inner thoughts in the hopes of getting some answers.

"Gaara was acting weird, like he'd just had some sort of heart attack or the mother of all brain freezes, and walked by me with a look on his face that said he'd kill the first person who annoyed him." Xander explained, sounding like he wanted to avoid a repeat of the situation, "I might not be a genius but even I know when to avoid dangerous people. When we were right next to one another, though, there was a spike in whatever it was that I'd picked up from him. I knew right then what it was that didn't belong amongst the rest of us: death. He felt like he was giving off an aura of death."

"You mean he was giving off a lot of killer intent?" She asked since she was familiar with this field of lethality that all ninja could give off when in the presence of an enemy.

"No. This was different. Comparing what I felt to killer intent to this would be like comparing Pepsi to Diet Pepsi. The two might taste similar but there's no way someone could confuse one with the other in a taste test," he replied, shaking his head in denial of her query. "This had a… colder feel to it. The chill of the grave, I guess you could say. Whatever it was, I can safely say that I've never once felt anything like it before and I could **SO** go a long time without feeling it again."

Hearing his words, she couldn't help but feel a chill go up her spine but, since she didn't like such creepy thoughts, she quickly decided to change topics to something more pleasant.

It wasn't hard to pick that pleasant topic.

"Well, Xander-sama… if you need something to help you relax… I can think of a few interesting things we could do." She said with her imagination causing her eagerness to rise.

If someone entered the room now, she would kill them.

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_**The Next Day, Outside of Konoha Stadium, Fifteen Minutes Until Noon, Xander's P.O.V**_

"Looks like this is where we split up, guys." Xander said as all of Team Anko stood on the front steps of the stadium, "Wish me luck!"

"Give it your best shot, Wannabe." Hana said with her usual feral smile, "You're representing all of Team Anko out there. Don't screw it up!"

"'Cause if you do, I'll make you doing five hundred laps around Konoha **on your hands**!" Anko-sensei threatened with a playful gleam in her eyes.

Considering how good she was at messing with his head, this did not do wonders for his peace of mind. However his mind wound up scrambled even more when, out of nowhere, Ayeka wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a smoldering kiss on the lips. It only lasted until Anko-sensei delivered a fake cough to break them apart but the blue screen in his head lingered a little while longer before everything faded back to normal. While it was true that she, Mishima Ayeka, was a very attractive young woman, he wasn't sure if he wanted to take things past the friendship they currently had. She was one of his girls for sure, but he wasn't sure he wanted to try and make her his girlfriend. He'd given the idea some thought every once and a while, usually when they met for training sessions or someplace in town, but it was more of a passing line of thought than something he'd given serious consideration to.

_Maybe I should at least do a few trial dates and see how things go._ He thought as his brain finally got back to normal, _At least then I'd have a leg to stand on after I've decided which way I want to go._

"For luck." Ayeka said, explaining her rather passionate action.

"Um… thanks. See ya!" He said before taking off for the center of the stadium where the rest of the finalists would be assembled with Ava clinging to his shoulder.

As he entered the battlefield that made up the central area of the stadium, he could see that all but two of the finalists had already arrived. Temari, Shikamaru, Kankuro, Shino, Gaara and Ahou-sama all looked ready to go. Thankfully that creepy atmosphere of death the Sand ninja put out in the hospital seemed to be under better control than before. Nevertheless, it'd be a distracting influence during the final matches and he'd have to figure out a way to block it out or else it'd affect his ability to fight. Being distracted during a fight was not a good thing and frequently led to screw ups of the fatal kind. As he closed to ten feet, he began to wonder where Naruto and his cousin were because, according to his watch, it was ten minutes until the opening ceremony began. According to what Anko had told him earlier, the opening ceremony usually lasted about ten minutes at most before the first match began, which meant it'd be Naruto versus Ahou-sama first and then Sasuke would face off against Gaara. Considering both of the Konoha ninja involved in those matches were missing, it'd mean trouble for the Examiner who'd have to deal with the displeased audience. It was no secret that that a lot of the spectators were looking to see what an Uchiha was capable of and the fact that Naruto was missing meant that two matches would have to be passed over if the two members of Team Kakashi didn't show up soon.

Looking at the other finalists, he tried to figure out what they might have done to improve since the preliminary matches a month ago.

As far as Temari was concerned, she didn't look all that different, nor did a quick look with his Sharingan indicate a change in the flow of chakra with in her body. Still, he'd be a fool to think she hadn't improved somewhere since the fight with Tenten during the preliminary matches. She'd be a troublesome opponent but he had a plan in his head that he was reasonably sure should mess up whatever strategies she might have concocted to beat him. It had been a brilliant insight he'd stumbled upon but he'd be finding out today whether or not he'd found the best way to use it properly.

Shikamaru was going to be a pain one, way or another. While he didn't think that the lazy ninja had learned any new jutsu since the preliminary matches, he knew that the Nara kid's strength wasn't the number of techniques he knew but how he chose to use what he knew already. The kid had proven in his match against Hana that he was a strategic thinker that could probably think his way out of anything. So he'd chosen to take a page out of Shikamaru's book and had come up with a plan with the boy's skills in mind. He was no genius but he was pretty sure he'd covered all the bases and had what he needed ready to go inside of his equipment pouch. He just hoped that he didn't wind up making an ass of himself in the end.

As for the others, he had plans for them as well but he'd wait to see how the other matches went before putting any more thought into how he was going to beat them.

As the fireworks began to fire off, he knew that the opening ceremony had begun but whether it be to the left or the right, nowhere he looked could he see either Naruto or his cousin. He knew that Naruto had been at the hospital up until last night, according to the doctors, and was apparently fully recovered from whatever had given the kid a case of acute chakra exhaustion. So it was a bit odd that the noisy ninja wasn't already here demanding to know why the opening ceremony was so long or something. As for his cousin, it was a little easier for him to understand why he might be late. It all came down to who was training him: Kakashi. The mask wearing ninja was apparently suffering from a lifetime case of tardiness that pretty much had him late for everything, no matter how important it might be. With the Copy Ninja as his training supervisor, it was understandable that Sasuke would be a little behind schedule. Still, he hoped that they weren't **too** late because, if they were, then Hokage-sama would have to disqualify his cousin to make sure the rules were followed.

It was just as he was about to try and pick out people he knew from the crowd when he heard what sounded like a stampede coming from the entrance to the arena floor. Turning, he was just in time to see at least twenty Naruto shadow clones poof out of existence only to send the real deal flying into the arena before skidding to a halt on the ground behind them. Not exactly the most graceful of entrances but definitely in keeping with the noisy ninja's way of surprising people. Extending a hand, he helped the blonde to his feet he pulled his fellow finalist up with a single pull and watched as the blue eyed Genin tried to pat out some of the dirt on his orange outfit. Amusingly enough the kid didn't seem to be all that concerned with how potentially embarrassing his entrance had been but rather looked like he was taking a head count to see if every one of the finalists was present. It didn't last long but that was understandable since it wasn't hard to guess who was at the top of Uzumaki Naruto's list of people he wanted to fight.

"Huh? Where's Sasuke?"

"He's not here yet. I think he's caught a nasty case of Kakashi syndrome." He replied with a small grin.

"Kakashi syndrome?" Naruto asked, obviously clueless about the reference being made.

"You know, a sickness that causes everyone who gets it to be late whenever they're asked to be on time?" He asked rhetorically, hoping that wasn't completely lacking in basic smarts.

Fortunately, while not a genius, the number one noisy ninja in Konoha was smart enough to catch on and had a good laugh at what was said. Say what you would about the blonde member of Team Seven, he had a good sense of humor and that could be just as important as anything else when living the life of a warrior. He knew this better than anyone else.

"Hey, you two. Stop looking around. Stand up straight and show your face to the crowd," the Examiner for the final matches said.

It was then that Naruto noticed that they were surrounded on almost all sides by stands full of people who'd be watching them compete for the chance to be promoted to Chuunin. Fortunately the kid didn't let it affect him all that much except to let him know that he and the people standing at his side were going to be the main attractions for hundreds of people. Was he personally nervous? A little, since his team was counting on him and a bit more since this'd be where all his hard work over the past month would either pay off or blow up in his face.

No pressure, of course.

"You guys are the main players in the upcoming tournament." Said the Examiner as the entire group looked up to where Hokage-sama was sitting above the section of the stands where the feudal lords were sitting.

There was another chair to the left of the Third's but, according to Anko, the Hidden Village of Sand's Kazekage would be sitting there. It was customary for the Chuunin Exams that they be presided over by two Kage's from allied villages, though he was a little fuzzy on how they decided which Kage went to the Hidden village where the Exam was scheduled to be held. He supposed that it didn't matter in the end, since he doubted very much that he'd ever get the chance to meet the current Kazekage. It was then that his eyes saw a man dressed in blue and white robes similar to Hokage-sama come into view with two brown caped bodyguards following close behind.

_Hopefully this means that they'll be getting things underway soon._ He thought reaching up to scratch an itch that had chosen that moment to flare up on the back of his neck.

Seeing the Third rise from his seat and move closer to the railing, he relized it was indeed time to move onto the main event.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming to the Hidden Village of Konoha's Chuunin Selection Exam today," Hokage-sama said with a loud voice that was heard by all. "We will now begin the main matches with the nine that had passed the preliminaries. Please enjoy the matches."

With these words, the crowd began to cheer with excitement and anticipation of the battles that they would soon see from the best of those that had been submitted for the Exam. While this only heightened his hope that he would not screw up somehow, he did his best to lock away his anxiety as best he could.

"There are some things I need to tell you before the matches. Although the landscape is different, the same rules apply as in the preliminary matches; there are no rules." Explained the Examiner as though he was reading from a set of cue cards only he could see, "The match will only end when someone dies or gives up. But if I decide that the match is over, I will stop the match. Do not argue with me over it. Got it?"

None of the eight people present spoke up, so it was pretty much unanimous that everyone agreed to play by the restrictions that had been laid out.

"The first match is Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Neji." Said the Examiner while looking at the Genin he'd just named, "The rest of you need to go back to the waiting room."

With those words, all but the two named turned and began walking for the stairs that would take them into the inner hallways of the stadium where they could then proceed to the box seat area that had been set aside for them that overlooked the arena floor. However before he went, he wanted to say something to let Naruto know that he had at least one person backing him all the way in this match.

"Hey, Naruto! Show me what you got and beat Ahou-sama, okay?" He asked with his familiar lopsided smile, "I want to have something to motivate me to make it all the way to the last match.?"

"No problem! See ya there!" Naruto said with a confident smile on his face along with his usual cheer.

With those words he moved to catch up to the rest of the group and, minutes later, stood among them as the first match of the first round of the final matches was about to begin.

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_**Match 1**_

_**Uzumaki Naruto versus Hyuuga Neji**_

It was like watching an old style western showdown at first, with the two gunslingers staring each other down but not moving a muscle, but he doubted it'd last long. Naruto wasn't exactly known for his patience, after all.

He was proven right when, after Ahou-sama edged forward for the third time, the orange clad kid threw three kunai at the Hyuuga with excellent aim. However, with Byakugan activated, it didn't have any affect other than giving Neji some tools to use for a moment since Lord Idiot either blocked or deflected the blades sent his way. Naruto charged in almost immediately afterwards, making him think that maybe the kid had unknowingly taken a page from his playbook by trying to fill an enemy's hands so that they couldn't use any special techniques. If that was the case, then Genin Uzumaki should have kept up the projectile barrage until the last minute because, before the member of Team Seven even got halfway, the strongest member of Team Gai had his hands free once more.

It was a taijutsu match at first with Naruto using what skill he had in that area to both attack his foe but also evade Ahou-sama when he was in a bad position. It didn't last, though, since the kekkai genkai of the Hyuuga clan let Mighty Moron block or parry every one of the noisy ninja's punches or kicks with ease. Then, all of a sudden, Neji moved in past Uzumaki's defenses to deliver a stunning blow in the form of a palm thrust but this turned out to be just a set up for the first of many attempts to strike Naruto's tenketsus. That ability, to be able to not only see but manipulate key parts of the chakra circulatory system, was right up there on the list of things he'd tried to find a way to beat if he found himself facing Ahou-sama later on. The obvious way to neutralize it would be to keep away from Hyuuga and use long range methods to bring him down, but he was sure Neji knew this as well. Lord Idiot would be certain to try and make the match close quarter combat so he could use Juken to tear apart a foe's insides, thus ending the fight quickly. Fortunately he had a strategy to make getting in close impossible but it was dependant on getting the first stage of the plan finished quickly.

_I just hope that Naruto has a plan in mind as well, or this could wind up being a real short match._ He thought watching Neji try to strike the Uzumaki kid's shoulder, only for the blonde to role away at the last moment.

Naruto definitely was keeping the tenketsus in mind but, aside from backing off quickly when in danger of getting them hit, there didn't appear to be any deeper strategy. He sighed at this since he'd hoped that if he was learning under a powerful ninja, the noisy ninja might have been taught something of tactics and strategy but apparently this wasn't the case. A few seconds later he was forced to retract his previous conclusion a bit as the Uzumaki kid actually did something that was strategically smart by using the Kage Bunshin technique to create four solid copies. A good move, since, by the rules of the technique, a ninja's chakra was divided evenly, making it impossible for the Byakugan to tell the real Naruto from the copies. Still, this'd only mean that Neji would have to focus his attention in five places at the same time rather than keeping his attention on only one foe. With Byakugan's ability to provide its bearer with a three hundred and sixty degree view of the area around him, it didn't change things all that much for the Hyuuga. This was proven when, even with enemies coming at him, it only required minimal effort for Ahou-sama to neutralize their attacks. Even when it seemed like Naruto had managed to sneak past his opponent's defenses, it was proven to be a useless achievement.

Speed and agility honed from years of practicing Juken made evading blows second nature to the Hyuuga.

Naruto tried a repeat of the next move, no doubt emboldened by the near hit moments ago, but it was a solid rule of the ninja world that trying the same move or tactic twice against the same person was usually a fatal mistake. This was proven as Neji managed to land solid blows against the shadow clones, forcing them to disappear in puffs of smoke until only the original Naruto remained. Then apparently Ahou-sama felt the need to mouth off a bit more and, while he couldn't really hear what was being said, the tone used was all too recognizable. It was the tone that the Cordettes back home often used to tear apart the confidence of someone trying to rise above their current school rank. It was the same tone that Neji had used both during and after his match with Hinata-hime.

It made his blood boil knowing the same old shit was being spoken.

Even more so in light of what he'd learned about his parents.

If Neji's outlook on life was true, then it could be said that he was destined to either be a treacherous spy or lovestruck fool somewhere down the line.

He refused to believe that and Naruto did, too, using the Kage Bunshin to create no less than thirty copies of himself, probably in an effort to overwhelm his foe, all of whom charged the Hyuuga head on. However numbers didn't appear to matter since, just like before, the attacks sent his way were either blocked or deflected to the side with a consistency that made one think the fight had been choreographed beforehand. Again and again the clones attacked while the original Naruto only got involved every once and awhile before retreating behind the wall of clones he'd created. A smart move for avoiding Juken but also rendering the smokescreen effect of the Kage Bunshin technique useless as Neji proved moments later. Easily picking out the real McCoy from the fakes, Ahou-sama streaked past the copies, heading right for the Naruto that had not gotten too involved in the fight and with one thrust of his right hand stabbed the noisy ninja in the shoulder.

This was **SO** not good!

Odds were that Ahou-sama had aimed right for a tenketsu and, given where the human heart was, Lord Idiot had hit a major one. Naruto looked paralyzed and, as the shadow clones began to poof out of existence, it looked more and more likely that Neji had indeed hit the real noisy ninja of Konoha. As the real Naruto slumped over in pain, it looked like the fight was all but over but, in a moment of hope, he used his Sharingan to get a better idea of the Team Seven member's condition.

He couldn't help but smile at what he saw and let out a chuckle of amusement at what had just been pulled off in front of everyone.

Right when Ahou-sama was probably patting himself on the back, the supposed 'Real Naruto' that had been struck vanished in a puff of smoke, revealing itself to be another shadow clone. Then, out of nowhere, two Naruto's leapt into the air from behind Hyuuga Neji, clearly intent on feeding the idiot a knuckle sandwich or two. With the shock that most would expect Lord Idiot to feel, it looked like the moron was about to be dealt his first blow of the match. However, with his Sharingan still active, he saw the cloud of chakra emerge from Neji's body and, when Naruto's fist hit it, the attack was stopped in its tracks. This was not the end since the Hyuuga almost immediately began to spin around, causing the chakra cloud to rotate as well forcing anything caught in it to flow away.

This was both new and troublesome from his point of view.

He'd made plans for dealing with Neji's Juken skills but this new move of his pretty much put him right back where he'd started. A rotating chakra field that could protect the user from all physical attacks. About the only weakness he could see in it was that it probably consumed quite a bit of chakra to use each time, making continual use inadvisable. While it'd certainly be a slick move to have in a tough spot, he was pretty sure that no one but a member of the Hyuuga clan could perform the move. While it wasn't impossible to force chakra outside the body for a move, it was another thing entirely to force this much outside of the body at once and control it even a little. He'd just have to make a mental note to find a comparable technique that he could use himself with a little time and training.

As he watched Neji settle into an unfamiliar taijutsu stance, he felt himself dreading what the moron was about to show everyone this time. If the last move was the Hyuuga's version of an absolute defense then it was logical to assume that this was the ultimate in Neji's offensive repertoire. Watching carefully and using his Sharingan to memorize every movement, he watched in the hopes that it could prove useful to him in his own matches when combined with his other strategies.

It turned out to be a rapid fire series of strikes, sixty-four in total, to the tenketsus in Naruto's chakra circulatory system, causing the noisy ninja to get knocked to the ground in a heap. It was difficult to see from where he was but it looked like the blonde was still conscious, if afflicted with a serious case of paralysis. It was a fact that having one's chakra pathways messed with made movement almost impossible as he remembered the few times during his trip outside of Konoha when he'd pushed himself too far. While not quite the same, forcing his body to put out more chakra than was safe when nearly on empty was both painful and made moving a real bitch to deal with. Nevertheless, Naruto proved that with enough willpower one could work past this, even if it only enabled him to rise to his feet.

Then things devolved back into some sort of discussion and, judging from what he could see of Naruto's face, it was comprised of a series of revelations. He still couldn't hear what was being said beyond the tone that was being used by both, but this was enough to tell him that it wasn't another bout of trash talking on behalf of Ahou-sama. No. The passion, the **hatred**, that was in Hyuuga Neji's words were far too potent for that to be the case. It seriously made him wish that he was in a better position to lip read because with his kekkai genkai he could easily make out what Lord Idiot was saying. However he couldn't do that from where he was so he was restricted to simply keeping track of the conversation by the tone. There were a few times when Neji raised his voice enough for him to make out some of the words, words like 'father', but not enough to get a clearer idea on what was being discussed. Still if this had something to do with family he could sort of understand how something bad in the past could've made Ahou-sama such a prick.

It didn't excuse his overall jerkiness but it aided in understanding it somewhat.

In any case it remained a fact that Naruto was in a tough spot with his tenketsus shut down, eliminating his ability to use chakra in the execution of techniques. It puzzled him, though, when he saw the blonde take on the position that was standard when one wanted to create and mould chakra. That didn't make sense though since doing either was impossible thanks to the sixty-four strikes Ahou-sama nailed him with.

It was then though that everyone in attendance received one helluva shock.

Chakra, the very thing that Uzumaki Naruto shouldn't have been able to create, began to leak out of him like a cracked smoke sphere moving to and fro with the wind, like the tails of some kind of animal. His Sharingan allowed him to see all this but as the seconds passed by a feeling he'd only experience yesterday with Gaara began to reappear but with a different… flavor to it. It wasn't quite as potent but it still held within it the chill of the grave, the feeling of death, making him believe that this energy had experienced a lot of death in its time. Whether it was death it had seen, death it had caused or death it had consumed, he didn't know. He just knew that just like before with Gaara of the Hidden Village of Sand, he didn't like how it made him feel and hoped that Naruto put an end to this fight as soon as possible. If he didn't then he was heading for the bathroom until the chill went away because otherwise he'd start shaking like he was locked in a freezer.

Thankfully, though, the impatience that the member of Team 7 often displayed came into play sooner rather than later, as with a burst of speed that was almost too much for his Sharingan to follow, Naruto zipped around Ahou-sama and leapt into the air. Three shuriken flew through the air from Naruto's position but this attack was neutralized by the same whirling chakra cloud that had protected the Hyuuga once before while adding the benefit of arming the arrogant young man. The white-eyed boy tried to turn the match back in his favor by sending a barrage of projectiles at the oncoming noisy ninja but another burst of speed quickly removed the blonde from view. From that point on, over and over again, Uzumaki Naruto showed speed and power beyond anything that had been seen up until the weird chakra began to leak from his body. In the end, though, it all came down to one final head on collision that resulted in an explosion that threw both ninja away from the point of impact. Dust, dirt and rocks filled the air for a few seconds but it cleared eventually to reveal to craters in the ground.

Ahou-sama climbed out of one, looking more than a little beat up as evidenced by the difficulty the Hyuuga was having walking over to the other crater. In the other crater, though, seemed to lay one unconscious Uzumaki Naruto but his Sharingan told him what everyone else didn't know. He had to smirk a bit at this since he knew that if he'd been thrown to the ground in a blast like that, he'd probably still be on his knees shaking his head to get the ringing to go away. Still, he had the benefit of being the one to see the truth first and enjoy the reactions of the others moments later when, seemingly out of nowhere, Naruto burst from the ground to deliver a potent punch to Ahou-sama's jaw. This had practically everyone letting their jaws hang as they tried to figure out what was going on but this was straightened out when the Naruto in the crater poofed out of existence, revealing itself as a shadow clone. The noisy blonde ninja had used the cover provided by the dust cloud to create it as a decoy while he tunneled with his bare hands into just the right position underground to deliver his surprise attack. It couldn't have been easy, especially when the kid had to more or less guess where and when to pop out of the ground, but the gambit had all paid off in the end.

"Winner: Uzumaki Naruto." Declared the Examiner loud enough for everyone in attendance to hear.

And the crowd went wild, barely covered the roar that filled the air a second later.

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_**The Kage Private Box Seat, Three Minutes Later, The Third Hokage's P.O.V **_

"The crowd is noisy." Commented Kazekage-dono from his chair.

Prodded from his inner speculation as to how Naruto could have tapped into the chakra of the Nine Tailed Fox, he decided he'd have to shelve the issue for the time being. It would not be polite to ignore such an honored guest as the leader of the Hidden Village of Sand and the man's comment about the crowd was a valid one. While not the match that people had been waiting to see, the first battle of the final matches had whetted their appetites and made them all the more eager to see Sasuke fight Gaara.

"That was a nice battle." He said, indicating that the noise from the crowd was a reaction to Naruto's victory over Hyuuga Neji.

"Yes. That, too, but the next match is something the head ninja and the feudal lords are highly anticipating," Kazekage-dono pointed, sliding past the obstruction of Naruto's battle easily. "By the way, I did not see him at the opening ceremony, but he is already here, correct?"

"Yes…" he replied after much thought about where it would better to lie or tell the truth in response to that question.

Hearing his bodyguard for the event, Namiashi Raido, approach from behind, he paused for a moment in the hopes that the Jounin had good news.

"We still have not located Sasuke." Raido whispered to him, knowing that this was not information to be spread around. "And there's the Orochimaru thing. Perhaps we should disqualify him before everyone causes an uproar."

A valid course of action, even though he wasn't sure if they avoid angering the audience one way or another no matter what course of action they took. If they delayed the match any further, the crowd would only get angrier but if they disqualified the finalist many had come to see fight, that might anger them even more. Even though technically there was another Uchiha in the final matches, thanks to Xander's arrival in Konoha, he was a relative unknown. Sasuke had lived in the village from the beginning and had gained a certain morbid fame from being the only survivor of the Uchiha clan massacre all those years ago. This notoriety had gone far outside Konoha and into the other neighboring countries until he was pretty sure that any ninja of sufficient rank knew the story. Xander didn't exactly have a lot going for him and certainly not enough to compete with the sole survivor label that Sasuke had.

In the end, though, he decided that he would simply have to deal with the consequences of disqualifying Sasuke since it wouldn't be respectful of the other finalists to show favoritism.

"I have no choice…" he said reluctantly as he prepared to do what he must, "Sasuke is disqualified."

"Yes, sir." Said Raido, sounding accepting of the decision.

"Uchiha Sasuke, disqualified?" Kazekage-dono asked with some surprise present in his voice.

"I must." Was all he could say to that question.

It wasn't a reason, per se, but it would have to do.

"Hokage-dono, can you hold on before disqualifying Uchiha Sasuke?" Kazekage-dono asked with a firmness in his voice.

This was a bit of a surprise since while he knew that many were looking forward to seeing Sasuke compete, he didn't believe that his Country of Wind counterpart would go this far.

"Pardon the interruption, but those who think lightly of time as a ninja have no right to become Chuunin, no matter how elite they are." Raido declared, voicing his opinion on the situation quite clearly, "Unless there is a clear explanation that will convince the head ninja and feudal lords here, there is no reason to wait for him."

"I see. Then there is a good reason." Kazekage-dono stated, sounding certain in his words, "Including me, I can say that most of the head ninja and feudal lords here came to watch the next match."

"But…" Raido began to say with some reluctance concerning speaking against a Kage.

"He is a survivor of the Uchiha, after all. While I see that you have found another member of that Clan, there is so little known about him that I doubt they'll be satisfied with him alone." Kazekage-dono pointed out, adding more strength to his position, "Besides which, the Country of Wind wishes for him to fight our Gaara."

It was a convincing case with many good points, but it could also only make matters all the more complicated if, even after giving Sasuke more time, the young man remained missing. Still, he felt it was necessary to at least give both Kakashi and Sasuke a chance to arrive since the young Uchiha was no doubt looking forward to the chance to show everyone his strength.

"Hokage-sama." Raido said, waiting for a final decision on the matter.

"Very well." He said with some reluctance lingering in his voice, "We will put his match on hold and wait for him."

"Hokage-sama, are you sure?" Raido asked, sounding unsettled at this break from official procedure.

"Tell the Examiner." He ordered, making it clear that this discussion was closed.

"Hai." Raido said before using a jutsu to take him to Genma's side.

"It was rare for you to say that much, Kazekage-dono." He said, turning a bit to look at his fellow Kage.

It was only an itch in the back of his mind that caused him to say such a thing but, in his years as a ninja and as Hokage, he'd learned to pay attention to those itches.

"I can think of no other opponent besides an Uchiha to show our village's quality to the feudal lords." Kazekage-dono explained politely before returning his gaze to the arena floor, "It is a chance for us."

A good reason to be sure and one of the reasons the Chuunin Selection Exams were held in the first place. Add to that the recent decision by the feudal lord of the Country of Wind to reduce the number of ninja in the Hidden Village of Sand and a show of power here could offset the idea that Kazekage's ninja were weaker than those found elsewhere. Nevertheless, the itch in the back of his mind would not go away but, without a feasible reason to question his fellow Kage further, he would have to let it rest for the time being.

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_**The Waiting Room for the Chuunin Exam Finalists, Two Minutes Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Looks like they finally made a decision about what to do about Sasuke not being here._ Xander thought as he watched the Jounin that had popped up next to the Examiner disappear once more, _I hope they didn't disqualify him._

"Ladies and gentlemen, an examinee for the next match has not arrived just yet." Declared the Examiner in a voice that could be heard by all, "Therefore this match will be delayed, and we will begin the next match immediately."

Well, this was an interesting development.

While it was a bit out of the ordinary for the higher ups to be stretching the rules to keep Sasuke from being disqualified, he didn't have a problem with it. He was looking forward to seeing all the new tricks his cousin had up his sleeve as well as the chance to see just how different a homegrown Uchiha was from one raised in America. Would he be able to go toe-to-toe with his cousin, someone who was far more used to using his Sharingan than he was, and be able to give a good accounting of himself? Things like this were the reason why he really wanted to go up against his cousin and so while a break from the rules was odd he wouldn't raise a stink about it.

"Does that mean my match is coming up faster?" Asked Shikamaru, sounding like he was looking forward to a long wait before he had to mix it up.

Considerng the Nara boy was facing him, an Uchiha, in his first match, it was understandable. While he might have only been in Konoha a couple of weeks, he still possessed the Sharingan and had Uchiha as a last name, so that might be enough to intimidate the guy who often thought of things as troublesome.

"Next match up, Kankurou versus Aburame Shino." Said the Examiner before looking up at the two next fighters, "Come down."

Not the most interesting match in his opinion, but it'd be a nice way to kill time. A puppet master against a bug master was definitely an odd combination but there'd be enough tricks from both he figured to keep things interesting. Turning his head, he looked to Shino and saw the stoic shinobi prepare to leap to the arena floor but when the Sand ninja opened his mouth he knew something was up.

"Examiner! I'm giving up!" Kankurou yelled from his position between his siblings, "I'm giving up! Go to the next match."

This did not go over well with the crowd but, in his case, it had him thinking that something fishy was going on. The match ups had remained the same for the past month, so it couldn't be the thought of facing Shino that was causing the Sand ninja to develop a yellow streak. Had the guy's training not produced the results he'd wanted? Possible, since Kankurou's way of fighting was dependant on his puppet and all that the tool was capable of. Perhaps some part hadn't arrived or some design might have proved itself to be not quite as feasible as first believed. Somehow, though, he didn't believe that to be the case.

"Kankurou has given up, therefore Aburame Shino wins by default," declared the Examiner, since he didn't have a leg to stand on if the finalist chose to quit. "We will now be moving onto the next match. Uchiha Alexander versus Nara Shikamaru. Get down here, you two."

"Looks like it's our turn in the spotlight, Ava," He said with some excitement as he turned to his avian ally. "Let's go!"

He threw himself over the railing in such a way that he was able to make full contact with the wall with his feet after which he used the tree climbing technique to slide down the wall to the ground before leaping off. Ava was a bit annoyed at this dramatic entrance but he just brushed her off, figuring he could buy her off with some rabbits or fish later. Walking up to the Examiner, he could tell that it must be a major event to get more than a token reaction out of this guy and made him wonder if there was a Stoic Guys Society here in Konoha.

"You look ready to go." Stated the Examiner with a slight grin.

"More than ready." He said with his usual lopsided smile.

Looking up at the waiting room the Examiner yelled, "Nara Shikamaru? Get down here."

For a moment it looked like the troublesome Genin was going to say something odd as well but before he could Naruto came up behind him and delivered a slap on the back that might have been a **little** too strong.

"All right! Go get him, Shikamaru!" Naruto yelled loud enough that the whole village probably heard him before shoving the Nara kid over the railing.

Needless to say that the landing was far from graceful and had him wondering what the noisy ninja had been thinking when he'd pushed his fellow finalist like that.

_Probably just got caught up in the moment and acted before thinking things through._ He thought with a wince as Shikamaru reoriented himself into a more comfortable position.

Now, though, he'd have to see if the member of Team Asuma could find a good enough reason to actually put up a decent fight rather than just give up like Kankurou had. It was a distinct possibility and would work in his favor since he would be fighting Temari almost immediately afterwards, but it would also mean he'd have to double the performance level in order to pacify the crowd. That was already difficult since the people in the stands were throwing trash at the Genin sitting on the ground and it'd only get worse as time went on.

Sighing as he noticed people starting to toss drink cans that were full rather than empty, he decided that he'd have to throw the guy some kind of bone to get him to play along.

"Howsabout this, Shikamaru? You give me a decent fight for say… twenty minutes… and then if you still want to give up at that point, then you can go right ahead. That okay?" he asked with a reasonable voice.

The Nara Genin was still looking like he was contemplating giving up so he went one step further.

"Look at it this way, then. What is more troublesome: giving up now without lifting a finger only to have your whole village give you a hard time for the next month or putting forth some effort for twenty minutes so that everyone leaves you alone afterwards?" he asked, using the boy's own tendency to avoid troublesome situations, "What d'ya say?"

For a couple of seconds, the heir to the Nara family secrets seemed to mull over the possibilities and probabilities but, in the end it, looked like Shikamaru had decided that dealing with a miffed village was more troublesome than just putting on a show. Getting to his feet, Nara dusted himself off and took up the standard position opposite him that one would expect an opponent to take. The Examiner looked between the two of them to make sure they were ready before he opened his mouth to speak.

"Let's begin the second last match of the first round of the final matches." Declared the Examiner loud enough so that everyone would hear, "Uchiha Alexander versus Nara Shikamaru. Begin!"

The instant the words came out of the mouth of the Examiner, he tossed two smoke spheres he'd hidden in his gloves to the ground while at the same time leaping into the air. He knew it was only a matter of time before his opponent did the same so, reaching into his equipment pouch, he withdrew the scroll that contained a surprise he'd specifically prepared for this match. A bite of the thumb here, a streak of blood on paper there and four spheres that had enough senbon needles in them to make someone mistake them for porcupines appeared. With one blow per sphere he sent them to four separate corners of the arena floor and, just when they were about fifteen feet up, he sent out a pulse of chakra to trigger the pebble of explosive at the center of each sphere. Just as they had in practice, the senbon needles shot out in all directions, making it so that no place on the arena floor had more that a footprint sized area untouched space. By the time he'd touched down on the free space he'd both aimed for and made sure would be free of the needles, the smoke from his spheres had been blown away entirely. Just as expected, Shikamaru had leapt clear of the cloud only a few seconds after he had but that was too late to do anything about the first phase of his plan. Both he and the Examiner who hadn't been hit by the needles looked like they wanted an explanation for the mess he'd made. While in a real fight with an enemy ninja it'd be a faux pas to lay it all out for them, he figured it'd be alright to do so just this once.

"Bet you two are wondering about the needle graveyard I've set up right?" he asked with a small grin of confidence on his face, "Check out what's hanging from the tips of each needle and you'll get your first clue."

It was something he'd thought up when he'd tried to figure out a way to defeat Shikamaru's Kagemane no Jutsu during the trip back from the mountain. He'd known from the beginning that the core of the technique was the kid's shadow and so he'd built his strategy for defeating it around that one fact. It had taken a while, plus some research at the library, but he was sure that this method would mean that the Shadow Bind jutsu would be rendered useless. It took Nara Shikamaru less than two looks to figure out what he'd planned and the sigh was a sign that he had indeed figured out the strategy and decided that it was troublesome.

"You put flash beads on each of the needles. Troublesome." Shikamari said with a grin of respect.

"Yep. All it takes to set them off is a pulse of my chakra and then everything within three feet of them gets real bright, real quick." He said allowing his grin to grow a bit more, "As I'm sure you know, light might be helpful to shadows but only if it sticks around long enough. I can assure you that these won't."

At least he hoped they wouldn't.

He hadn't really had a chance to see just how fast the Kagemane no jutsu could move when used so he had no idea how far it'd be able to go when the beads went off, lighting up the area. For all he knew he'd just given the Nara boy exactly what he needed in order to royally trounce him. That was all the more reason for him to finish off the fight quickly before the idiot got any clever ideas to turn the tables on him. Pulling out two kunai, he charged Shikamaru head on, while minding his steps so that he didn't wind up ruining his strategy, but the Nara boy proved to be quite good at evasive moves. Even without his family's key technique he could manage well enough and so, even with increasingly skilled use of the blades, he couldn't land a single blow. Eventually Shikamaru managed to put some space between the two of them and fled to the small gathering of trees at the far end of the arena floor. A sound move if he was feeling pressured with evading his blows since the presence of the trees would give the guy more cover to use while making the task of cornering the troublesome ninja more difficult. He still had some safety in the fact that his needles would keep the Nara ninja from using his Shadow Bind technique but, depending on what his foe had in his equipment pouch, it could be a bit early to say he had everything well in hand.

He had to stack the deck in his favor even further.

Since fighting in close wasn't cutting it, he'd have to take another route if he wanted to achieve victory. Leaping into the air, he immediately began to form seals but waited until he was sure that he was outside the danger zone before completing the hand seals then executing the technique.

_Rat, Tiger, Dog, Ox, Hare, Tiger!_ He thought before declaring his attack, "Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!"

With the declaration of the technique, he brought his right hand up to his mouth and began to bombard the collection of trees with grapefruit sized balls of flame. Branches were broken, leaves ignited and a potentially bothersome obstacle keeping him from victory began to fall to pieces. Shikamaru wouldn't be able to stay in there if wanted to remain both pain and injury free and, once he was back in the open, he could begin setting the stage for end game.

It was then, though, that multiple mini-explosions rocked the collection of trees but they happened in an order that could only be described as planned. What happened next pretty much confirmed it because all of the trees fell outwards rather than inwards but the bad part came next because precisely what he had hoped to avoid by leaping into the air happened anyways. One by one each of the flash beads that hung too close to the flaming pieces of wood began to detonate, lighting up the area around it just like he wanted them to but not when he wanted them to. While they had been prepared to detonate when he sent out a pulse of his chakra, that didn't change the fact that they could be ignited in other ways. Even if a remote controlled bomb was meant to blow after receiving a signal, it could still be set off in other ways. Due to this fact, about a fifth of the needles had just had their beads blown, increasing Shikamaru's territory while taking a significant chunk of his own.

He made a mental note to stay out of the areas that no longer had flash beads to aid him.

The question he had to ask, though, was had the Nara boy done it on purpose, knowing the effect the falling flaming trees would have on his plans, or was it by accident. No. Better to assume it had been done on purpose, fully knowing that it'd ignite the beads, freeing up space to trap him with his Shadow Bind technique. Therefore, upon landing, he moved further into the needle-infested area while keeping his eyes on the burning remains of the trees. As far as he knew, Nara Shikamaru was still in there so, as long as he kept his eyes open, he should be able to pounce on him the moment he made a move. Still, it was something of a handicap that he had to perform his techniques from high above the arena rather than at ground level. It couldn't be avoided, though, since he hadn't been able to fine tune the chakra triggering process enough so that he could freely use his jutsus without ruining everything. However it'd been the only way he could be sure of that he wouldn't wind up in the same puppet-like state that Hana had been caught in during the preliminary matches. Simply evading the shadows wouldn't work because anything with even a hint of darkness could be used to either hide the Shadow Bind technique or increase its range.

Increase its range… SHIT!

Looking down at his feet he spotted it almost two seconds too late but, fortunately, both mind and body proved to be fast enough as he was able to leap away from the flickering shadows of the fallen trees just in time to keep from getting caught by a moving shadow. Leaping back a good eight feet, he kept an eye on the shadow that had almost ensnared him, waiting to see if it could stretch itself even further, but wound up breathing a sigh of relief as it retracted back towards the standing trees. He was safe for the time being but he mentally yelled at himself to be more careful from here on out because, if he'd been just a hair slower, the Shadow Bind technique would have hit him. Looking about at the fallen trees and trying to estimate the added range they'd give the Kagemane no jutsu, he learned that he had indeed, unintentionally, given Shikamaru even more territory than he'd originally thought. Now almost half the arena could be reached with the Shadow Bind technique and, while his flash beads still provided a measure of protection, they only did so as long as he stayed inside their range. Also with the flickering flames on some of the downed trees it would seem that it might be possible for the Nara Genin to use the transitory darkness therein if he pushed hard enough. Obviously there was some sort of element to the Shadow Bind technique that he wasn't aware of but he did have a way to make sure he wouldn't be taken by surprise again.

Channeling chakra to his eyes, he activated his Sharingan.

While it was true that his kekkai genaki couldn't copy the jutsu Shikamaru's family specialized in, he could differentiate chakra from more natural forms of energy. This would help him see which shadows were normal and which were being used by the Kagemane no jutsu to reach out to him. Still, being able to evade attacks was one thing but he also had to figure out a way to beat the troublesome-hating ninja, otherwise he doubted the audience would put up with the current stalemate for long. Seeing two fighters deadlocked might be interesting for a while but, if neither warrior gained an edge, they'd get cranky. He needed to come up with an attack plan that didn't involve getting within range of his opponents signature attack. Step one in that plan would be to actually pin down the Nara Genin's location since just saying 'he is in those trees' wasn't accurate enough to come with a plan more complex than 'bombard that area there'. Again his Sharingan proved useful because, while the flames on the trees did have lingering traces of his chakra in them, those bits were quickly fading away. Add to that the uniqueness of a sentient being's energy and it took him a single glance to find Shikamaru huddling behind two trees on the far right of the main grouping. It was one of the few places with cover still present that didn't require someone to get down on their hands and knees to remain hidden.

_What the heck's he doing?_ He thought as he fully took in his foe's stance.

It was a basic crouch with neither knee touching the ground and his fingers touching each other in such a way so as to form a perfect circle between the two hands. He was like that, perfectly still, and he had no idea why, but he seriously doubted that it would mean anything good for him. In all likelihood the guy was probably doing the same thing he was, coming up with a plan, so in the end it'd be a race to see who came up with a workable plan of action first. Time for a game of 'what do I know'.

First he knew that Shikamaru's signature technique was the Shadow Bind technique.

Second was that, aside from Academy techniques and standard equipment, the Nara boy really didn't have anything special about him. No sign of elemental techniques or specialized equipment as far as he knew.

Third, the guy had shown signs of having quite the strategic mind which made underestimating him a bad idea.

The first two he didn't have too big a problem with since he had managed to erect a pretty solid defense against the Kagemane no jutsu and knew most of the Academy level techniques himself. The major problem was the chess champion mind the Nara boy appeared to have and the unknown number of moves ahead the Genin could think of. He was definitely not a genius, even if he did occasionally did have moments of cunning and insight, so games like chess made him blow a fuse more often than not. That little fact though only meant he was at a bigger disadvantage than usual but that wasn't all that different from the norm for him. He always wound up facing something that had some sort of edge over him but he nevertheless managed to pull through somehow.

This would be no different.

In the end he could only come up with a single plan that just might give him the opening he needed in order to put an end to the fight: to do something completely unexpected that your enemy can't make sense of.

With that in mind, he waited until he was reasonably sure that Shikamaru had his eyes open and then set off a massive pulse of chakra intended to trigger all of the flash beads at once. While he too was somewhat blinded by the flash beads, he'd made sure that he only half the damage was done to his vision. Charging the last known location of the Nara Genin, he began to form the seals for one of the first techniques copied by his Sharingan.

"RAIKOU KOUU NO JUTSU!!" he cried out before lobbing blue spheres at Shikamariu's location.

Mere seconds after they reached the right spot, they exploded into showers of pencil-sized bolts of lightning that covered the area with shocks that were about the same charge as your average stun gun. Not enough to seriously hurt or killed, but definitely enough to make moving harder and most definitely enough to distract the Nara kid from carrying out any plans of his. Once he was reasonably sure that he was close enough that his foe wouldn't be able to recover enough to formulate a plan, he ceased using the Raikou Kouu technique. Leaping over the damaged trees that his enemy had been using as cover, he prepared to deliver a five hit taijutsu combo guaranteed to KO anyone. As he cleared the trees, he could see Nara on his hands and knees groaning in pain but this would only make his work easier. Bringing his fist back he was about to deliver the first blow of his combo when something happened that he had not planned for.

Shikamaru disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving not a trace behind.

_WHAT!? He was there! I knew he was there! My Sharingan told me so!_ He thought as he landed and immediately looked about to try and find his target.

However all thought came to an end when an unnatural stiffness overcame his body and he realized at once that not only had Shikamaru expected this but had actually planned on it.

"Kagemane no jutsu seikou!" Came Nara Shikamaru's voice not from the sides or above, but rather from below.

Hearing the sound of someone rising out of something, he was helpless as his body mimicked the actions even though the environment didn't aid in the mimicry.

"Bet you're wondering 'how the hell did he pull this off', right?" Shikamaru asked before obviously turning his head since his head did the same, "Take a look."

Moving his eyes as his head turned, he soon spotted the one thing he'd overlooked and the one thing his foe had used to turn the tables on him. It wasn't much on the surface, just a hole in the ground about three feet deep or so but it was right next to a destroyed tree that was still burning with the remnants of the fireballs he'd produced. That would have obscured his opponent's chakra even from his Sharingan but that didn't explain how the decoy had been able to look so much like the real deal, even to his kekkai genkai.

"This entire match has been troublesome. Fighting an Uchiha, dealing with all those fireballs and falling trees. Troublesome!" Shikamaru said with a bothered look on his face, "You made me have to go farther than I've ever had to go. Blowing things up, creating a half-assed Shadow Clone that cut my power in half and now holding you using the Kagemane no jutsu. I don't need this kind of stress!"

A Kage Bunshin!

That was a technique that usually only Jounins could perform with any reliability and, while it was true that Naruto could use it absurdly well, the blonde boy was the exception to the rule. Still, such a move would have been enough to fool him just as Uzumaki's clones had tricked Ahou-sama in the first match. However it was something he hadn't expected since he'd not anticipated the young Genin to have either the chakra capacity or the skill to perform such a high level technique. However, considering that the technique had only been existence for less than thirty seconds and had dispersed on its own without him hitting it. So the claim that it was half assed could mean that he couldn't produce a stable Kage Bunshin or at least keep it stable for very long. Still, it was not something he'd expected and that was why he got caught but fortunately he had anticipated getting caught in the Kagemane no jutsu so it was time for him to put his contingency plan into effect.

"Then I apologize in advance for making things worse. AVA!" he yelled while at the same time sending a signal to his partner to do her part.

It was a little known fact that most animals that weren't brought into this world due to a summoning couldn't use chakra or use them to execute techniques. There were some who possessed above average intelligence, like Ava, or the dog partners of the Inuzuka Clan, who, with some proper training, could perform justu by utilizing their chakra, but they weren't common. In any case, it had taken both the trip up, the trip back and the final week before the final matches to teach the Eagle Hawk a single trick. It was a pain but he was confident that the bird would be able to pull it off on command.

If she didn't, he'd be in a serious pinch, no two ways about it.

Fortunately when he saw the two ping-pong ball sized spheres enter his field of vision, he knew that the bird had done its job right on the first try. Closing his eyes he waited for the familiar sounds of two shinobi flash balls detonating, bathing the area in light. He could feel it, the instant that the Shadow Bind technique lost its hold over him, and, knowing it wouldn't last long, he poured as much chakra into increasing his speed as much as he could. Tackling Shikamaru to the ground, he wasted no time pressing a kunai to the fellow Genin's throat just hard enough to let the guy know it'd only take a little more strength to draw blood.

"Game over, Shikamaru."

"This has gotten way too troublesome." Shikamaru declared before raising his arm up high enough so the Examiner could see it, "I give up! I GIVE UP!"

"Nara Shikamaru forfeits. Winner: Uchiha Alexander." Declared the Examiner, causing the crowd to cry out with cheers.

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_**The Stands of Konoha Stadium, Same Time, Anko's P.O.V**_

_Looks like Xander-kun came prepared._ She thought as she sat next to Hana and Ayeka in the stands, _I wonder how many other tricks he's got hidden away besides the Summoning Technique._

While she'd checked up on him every once and a while over the past week and asked her two troublesome students what they'd seen, she still didn't know everything that the Uchiha had done to prepare for the final matches. Between her duties as a Jounin teacher and the covert preparations to deal with Orochimaru's unknown plans, she hadn't been able to do more than do passing checks on the young man. Still, she had been pleased by what she'd seen, both during this match as well as during training, so she figured that all his hard work would pay off. If he could beat someone that Asuma praised as being a super genius, then the others shouldn't be all that difficult. Sure, there'd be a power difference but that wouldn't be too much of a problem, considering the fact that the finalists were smart enough to not pull anything off that could endanger the spectators. Plus the fact that they were all Genin meant that the higher ranked jutsus would be impossible for them to do serious damage even if they wanted to. Plus she was fairly certain that if by chance a jutsu went wild enough to endanger bystanders, the other Chuunin and Jounin in the audience would be able to neutralize it.

"Man, did Wannabe make a mess of things!" Hana exclaimed, looking at the remains of the stadium floor, "It's going to be a bitch to clean up."

"Not our problem and I'll turn the first person who tries to force Xander-sama to clean up is going to find themselves turned into a pin cushion." Ayeka said with a growl that dared anyone to testing her on this.

Hana had a point, though, as she looked at the needles that still dotted the stadium floor as well as the downed trees that were just starting to stop smoking from the flames of Xander-kun's fire element attack. While his moves had been appropriate for dealing with Asuma's boy, they had been rather widespread in nature and would minimize the environmental advantages the other finalists might have taken advantage of. Still, it was part of the life of a ninja to fight on battlefields not of your choosing or to have to deal with changes in circumstances that you weren't given time to prepare for. The others would simply have to adapt to the change in terrain and overcome their assigned opponents, despite the changes.

The big thing that she was sure that everyone was wondering about now though was whether or not Xander's cousin would make it to the stadium in time to keep from being disqualified. While she could tell from listening to the people around her that her Uchiha's fight had been good, the young man from America didn't have the same rep as his cousin, so there was a limit to how much they could enjoy the fight not knowing a lot about one of the participants. As such they were looking forward to Sasuke's match since the Genin was well known as the only survivor of the massacre of the clan and his time at the Academy had raised him to number one rookie status. That was quite a bit of information for the fans to take in and it helped them attain a better grasp of things so they could enjoy the match more. So, now everyone was waiting for the big match, Uchiha Sasuke versus Gaara, and if things didn't go the way they wanted, Hokage-sama was going to have a riot on his hands.

"So? Do you think Wannabe's cousin is going to show up anytime soon?" Hana asked, looking about the stadium as though looking for something distracting to hang her attention on.

"Well, if he doesn't, then that's all the more good news for Xander-sama." Ayeka said with a smile that made her words honest, "If Sasuke gets disqualified then it means Xander-sama will have an advantage being the only Sharingan-user left in the final matches. All that he'll have to be careful about is that Gaara freak. If he can beat that Sand ninja, then the rest'll be a cake walk."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that. That Uzumaki brat managed to pull off an upset against that Hyuuga, so who knows what he could do against Wannabe." Hana said, looking at something on the other side of the stadium, "Plus that Shino kid is pretty sneaky, so he might be able to pull something off."

"No! Against **my** Xander-sama, there's no hope for those losers!" Ayeka declared, adamant about her future husband's chances of coming out on top.

_We'll see Ayeka. We'll see. _She thought as she looked up at where Hokage-sama sat next to Kazekage-dono.

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_**The Kage Private Box Seat, One Minute Later, The Third Hokage's P.O.V **_

"Hokage-sama, about Uchiha Sasuke…" Raido whispered into his ear, "He hasn't arrived yet."

"I have no choice, then…" Sarutobi said with some regret that he would be depriving the driven Uchiha of his chance to become Chuunin, "I cannot let the guests wait like this."

"Ten more minutes." Came the voice of his Sand Village counterpart, "Can we try and wait for ten more minutes?"

"But…!" Raido said, obviously opposed to further favoritism being shown to the Uchiha survivor.

"The guests have been waiting for this match. It would be cruel to cancel it," Kazekage-dono explained in a tone that at best could be described as being ambiguous. "We have waited a long time already. Waiting an additional ten minutes is nothing. Besides which, if Uchiha Sasuke does not appear within ten minutes, you could always ask Uchiha Alexander to fight again. I believe he is scheduled to fight my daughter, Temari. Such a fight could buy more time for Sasuke to arrive."

True.

While he had some concerns about Xander being able to fight two matches in a row, albeit with a ten minute break in between, he could not dismiss the fact that Jun'ko's son had improved since the preliminaries. Had he improved his stamina and chakra capacity enough to stand a chance against a fresh Temari? That he could not say, but it was definitely an option worth considering should ten minutes prove to be insufficient time for Sasuke-kun to arrive at Konoha Stadium.

"Hokage-sama?" Raido asked, waiting eagerly for his leader's decision.

Listening to the crowd, though, he knew that he may have to force the American into his match whether he liked it or not. While he had faith that his people, the citizens of Konoha, would be well take this delay in stride, he could not be sure that the same would be the case with the feudal lords and visiting head ninja. He knew from personal experience that they were an arrogant and often impatient lot who would not hesitate to raise a political ruckus over something this minor. It was a combination of a field filled with mines and a contest of riddles dealing with the various people of rank in this region of the world. While there were those that he could safely say he trusted, there were more that he knew had to be 'handled' in just the right way or else it would only cause problems for Konoha and perhaps even the Country of Fire. So in the end, to avoid causing unnecessary strife, he decided he would indeed ask Xander to take to the stadium floor once more if Sasuke didn't arrive at the end of ten minutes.

He would, however, wait until the very last moment before asking the son of Uchiha Jun'ko to fight once more, if only to give the young man as much time as possible to regain what strength he could. It would not be to the young man's benefit he if ruined the excellent performance he gave fighting Shikamaru, for it would give his reluctant councilors leverage to overturn his earlier actions. It had indeed been a bothersome two hours straight that he had argued with them over the matter, but the only things they had to use to oppose his actions were their own personal opinions and nothing more. He had just been notified that the final bit of paperwork had been completed and filed, leaving only the task of informing Alexander of the matter. He had chosen, though, to wait until after the final matches, since he knew all too well that such news as he had would only unnecessarily distract the young man.

In any case, though, he had a decision to announce.

"Kazekage-dono, you have a point." He said before turning to the head of an allied village, "Then may I extend the waiting period an additional ten minutes?"

A slight changing of Kazekage's eyes was the only response he got but it was enough for him to know that his colleague had agreed to the extension.

"Go tell Genma about this." He ordered Raido, hoping that Kakashi would have the sense to get his pupil here as soon as possible.

With those words Raido leapt away towards Genma, who stood in the center of the stadium floor. While he hoped that the tardiness of the teacher had simply been passed onto the student, he couldn't help but fear that his former student might have done something. It was no secret that among those that knew of the Snake Sannin's actions were tense and some were even starting to leap at shadows thanks to their own anxiety. Not that he blamed them, considering how fiendish and cunning Orochimaru could be, but he knew he'd feel better when Sasuke arrived safe and sound.

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_**Finalist Waiting Room, Nine Minutes and Thirty Seconds Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_What the hell is taking Sasuke so long!?_ He thought as he made his tenth pass of the entrances into the stadium, _Hokage-sama is buying him time but even the Third can't hold this crowd at bay forever!_

Popping a food pill into his mouth, he wondered what would happen if his cousin didn't show up in the next few seconds. In all likelihood Sasuke would be disqualified if he didn't show up and would have to wait until the next Chuunin Selection Exams were held. While he couldn't claim to know his cousin all that well, he knew enough to be able to say that this missed opportunity would not sit well with Sasuke. The kid was determined to maintain a steady rate of progress so that he could take his revenge upon his older brother, Itachi, for the massacre of the Uchiha clan as soon as possible. Any delay was inexcusable to his cousin and only served as an incentive to push himself even harder to make up for the obstacle that defeated him. That would not end well at all, since his cousin was stubborn enough to push himself beyond what was safe and might even be willing to break rules if it meant he'd become strong like he wanted. He knew that he couldn't possibly imagine what his cousin had been through the night of the massacre, or what finding out that his own brother had been behind it. While he had his own grudge against Uchiha Itachi for robbing him of his new family, he knew it could not compare to the hatred within his cousin Sasuke.

If only for the reason of keeping his relative from becoming more obsessive about getting stronger, he would do all he could to keep Sasuke from being disqualified.

Judging from the look on the Examiner's face, though, time was quickly running out and he would have to act soon or it'd be too late for sure. With a minor sigh, he put on his game face and, after ordering Ava to take her place on the railing of the waiting room, leapt to the stadium floor. Keeping his legs loose in order to absorb the impact of the landing, he stood soon after looking the Examiner right in the eye.

"Is there something wrong?" Asked the Examiner, playing with the toothpick in his mouth.

"I know Sasuke hasn't arrived yet so I volunteer to start my match with Temari of the Hidden Village of Sand right now." He replied with resolve in his voice as well as in his eyes, "If it'll buy time for my cousin to get here, I'll fight for as long as I have to."

For a moment the Examiner seemed unsure as to how to proceed so he looked upwards towards the place where Hokage-sama and Kazekage-dono sat. After a few seconds he looked back and nodded, which must have meant that the Third understood what was being asked and had consented to it.

"Very well. Temari! Get down here." Declared the Examiner looking up to where the blonde Sand ninja stood in the waiting room.

As she had been told, the blonde beauty came down from the waiting room, riding her fan that was being held aloft by a wind she had stirred up moments before. Once both her feet were on the ground he could see from both her stance as well as the look in her eyes that she was ready to kick his ass and make it look easy. It was the same sort of look Buffy had on her face when facing down a group of vampires and made him worry that he was about to have a tougher fight than he'd initially thought. Still, he had a plan for neutralizing the Sand kunoichi, but it would depend on just how flexible her mind was as well as how quickly it could adapt to changes. If she was as resourceful and versatile as Buffy, then she'd be able to sweep aside his plan like it was nothing, forcing him to come up with something on the fly.

Then again, wasn't that the normal M.O for the Scooby gang?

He just hoped that this didn't turn out to be one of those rare times that by the seat of your pants planning blew up in the face of the Scoobies.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have decided to have one final match before the one pitting Uchiha Sasuke against Gaara of the Sand," Declared the Examiner to the crowd in the stands. "Uchiha Alexnader versus Temari of the Hidden Village of Sand. Begin!"

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_**The Stands of Konoha Stadium, Near Sakura's Seat, Same Time, Maito Gai's P.O.V**_

_Kaaaa! That boy has the springtime of youth within him!_ Gai thought as he watched Xander-kun enter battle anew less than ten minutes after the last one ended, _I knew teaching him the gravity jutsu would help him!_

Indeed it looked as though the young Uchiha's stamina had been improved upon greatly since the preliminary matches and, if what he'd learned from Kakashi's student Sakura was true, the young man had showed signs of a keen strategic mind. While he had not seen the young ninja since he'd come by asking to be taught the gravity jutsu, he'd learned enough from his visits to the main offices to know where Anko's student had gone. It had been daring. It had been ambitious. It was enough to make him consider offering the Uchiha an official spot as his adorable Lee's training partner just so he could see how far their youthful fires could take them. Xander-kun's Sharingan would make teaching the two of them easy, making the only hard part getting the Uchiha's body up to Lee's level. Still, with determination and the springtime of youth, it could be done and he'd take it as a personal challenge if anyone said otherwise in his presence.

As he watched the battle begin, he watched as the Uchiha threw a rather large amount of smoke spheres to the floor, almost completely obscuring both combatants. It was an average opening move but not one that would do much effect against a user of wind element techniques, since the smoke could be blown away easily enough, something that Xander should know as well. This made him wonder if there was some sort of hidden strategy in progress that he did not see quite yet. As a chakra-infused wind swept the smoke aside like it was nothing, he got both his first hint as well as his first surprise as one of the people standing on the arena floor was not whom had been there moments ago. Instead of one Uchiha Alexander standing across from Temari of the Hidden Sand Village, someone who looked like a dead ringer for one Hyuuga Hinata stood there… but that was impossible. While he didn't know much, he knew from speaking with Kurenai that the young lady was still feeling the effects of Neji's attacks in the preliminaries. There's no way she would think of entering into a fight in that state and it was then that he realized what had been done. Xander had used the Henge to transform into Hinata, but it left him puzzled since he knew it wouldn't take long for the Uchiha's opponent to figure out what had happened.

Then the other proverbial shoe dropped.

With movements and speed that he'd never seen in the heir of the Hyuuga family, Anko's newest pupil advanced upon Temari just as it looked like the young woman had figured out the truth. It turned out to be too late, though since, in a move that no one could have anticipated, the young man in the form of a Hyuuga executed a move that neither Hinata nor Xander should know. A perfectly executed Tsūga that could easily pass for one used by a ninja raised by the Inuzuka clan and it definitely was something that Temari hadn't seen coming. The blonde had barely been able to bring her fan up to block the attack and the assault still managed to push the Sand ninja back a good seven feet before coming to a stop. While most Inuzuka's took at least half a year to learn the move, he knew that thanks to the Uchiha's kekkai genkai, Xander-kun had copied the technique. Then, thanks to the training he'd underwent traveling to and from the mountains using the gravity jutsu, the young man had gained the body to perform the jutsu as well. He didn't see Inuzuka Hana anywhere nearby, nor Hyuuga Hinata, but since he was fairly certain that the matches were being recorded for study later on, he decided they'd find out about this sooner or later.

The pace was kept fast after the endured Tsūga technique, with Xander managing to use a single flash bead to once again disrupt Temari's sight. It was a move that made more sense to him now since the young woman's wind techniques wouldn't matter one bit if she couldn't see her opponents. As an added bonus it was a habit that just about everyone had that if something hurt their eyes or assaulted their face, that they did their best to block it. This reduced the likelihood that the female ninja would just fire off wind jutsu at random in the hopes of hitting something but did not eliminate the option entirely. As he watched a puff of smoke pop up around the Uchiha, though, he began to understand the other part of the young man's plan. It was quite cunning indeed and yet at the same time an obvious move that was easy enough for even the youngest ninja to understand the brilliance of it.

When one encountered an enemy, it was only natural to take what one saw into account in order to formulate a plan of attack. If one recognized the enemy by name, they immediately took into account which techniques were either associated with that person or the ninja clan/village they were connected to when planning a winning strategy. If it was a ninja that they couldn't identify, they planned using the clothes and the gear to determine a country of origin, since that would give them a clue as to what kind of jutsu to keep an eye out for. While it did take some time to ingrain in the minds of ninjas, it was started mid-way through the Academy and only became more reflex with time and accelerated when they gained experience on missions. Considering the fact that Temari had likely been in the field for three or four years, it was a safe bet to say that assimilating physical appearance facts to come up with battle strategy was probably second nature to her by now. She was lucky, though, that she was learning one of the major flaws of this way of thinking here in a match where defeat was not likely to mean death. Had this happened out in the field while on a mission, it could very well mean her death or worse: her survival and capture.

Watching as Xander used the henge no jutsu to transform into his adorable Lee, he had to wonder how long it'd be before Temari's mind adjusted to the constantly changing circumstances. Seeing the Uchiha perform a passable Konoha Daisenpū, he saw the Sand Kunoichi almost get knocked clear off her feet but her recovery ability was impressive, allowing her to stay standing. Was it a sign that she was beginning to shake off the instability the constant changing and technique mismatching? Or was the block reflexive? In any case, it was then that Anko's boy made the first mistake of the match as he allowed his form to return to normal before unleashing a lightning element ninjutsu blast. Normally this would be effective but, in this case, it was a mistake, given the sort of jutsus that were Temari's tendency to use. It was a known fact that lightning techniques were weak against wind techniques, so firing off a blast of lightning without thinking could very well backfire.

What happened seconds later proved this theory as Temari executed a wind technique that completely neutralized the lightning blast, making sure it didn't come close to hitting her. While he was surprised that someone who'd put such thought into his strategy would be more mindful of what element ninjutsu he used. Was it a mistake or was it a part of a much larger plan? While it looked to be the former, he wouldn't entirely discount the latter so he watched for some sort of sign to indicate which one it was.

As more lightning element ninjutsus were used against Temari, he had to wonder if the boy had finally popped a brain cell since none of the attacks achieved any mentionable results. They were all either turned aside or neutralized outright before getting anywhere near the young blonde woman, making them nothing more than a waste of chakra. It was right then, though, that the opponent of the young woman apparently decided to become the dominant attacker by swinging her fan viciously while unleashing a wind jutsu. While he was too far away to hear her declare the jutsu, he suspected that it was the Kamaitachi no Jutsu, which he'd estimate as being at most a C rank jutsu. A sound move since it would keep the boy from formulating any new plans or restarting his strategy from earlier.

Or so he thought.

In a move that he was fairly sure that no one saw coming, Uchiha Xander performed a fire element ninjutsu that should have been beyond the young man's capabilities. Rearing back his head a bit before thrusting it forward, the male member of Team Anko executed a fire ninjutsu that was without a doubt above C rank. If it hadn't been for Temari's excellent reflexes, she would have been hit dead center with the assault but instead only caught the edge of it. It completely obliterated any chance the female Sand ninja might have had to go on the offensive but it must have also left the young man dangerously low on chakra. B rank techniques were hard enough for Chuunin level ninjas to pull off in a pinch, but for a Genin, even one as talented as Xander-kun, it was dangerous. Looking at the young man as the fire jutsu came to an end, though, he was surprised to see him charge Temari head on. There were obvious signs of fatigue beginning to creep into the Uchiha's movements but it looked like he'd make it to his foe before it became a problem.

It was then though that the future sparring partner of his cute Lee dropped his second big surprise of the match as he mimicked the motions of a competitor that had only been used a couple of minutes ago.

Falling into a stance that could only be a part of the Juken style, he had to wonder at what could have prompted the kid to use such a move. While it was true that the Sharingan could copy the physical movements of Juken, Xander's body lacked the special qualities needed to push chakra outside of the body or see the tenketsu like the Hyuuga could. He got his answer when the boy from America began to lash out with his hands speeds that allow him to snake around Temari's attempts at blocking or evading, even if it was by a slim margin. What was surprising though was the fact his strikes seemed to be having a very similar effect on the Sand ninja as a Juken strike at a tenketsu would. An arm going limp, a debilitating blow, and it because clear that this match was all but over as Xander's foe had her ability to control her body taken away bit by bit. It puzzled him, as well as everyone else, no doubt, as it seemed that the young man was somehow managing to pull off the impossible but as the last three blows landed, sending the blonde woman to the ground he instantly recognized what was being done.

While it was true that the Sharingan could not see the tenketsus accurately enough in order for a user to attack them, pressure points were another matter entirely. There were many scrolls in the village library as well as at the academy that told readers precisely where the various pressure points were located on the human body. Hitting just the right spot in just the right way could numb limbs, cause great pain or paralyze a person for a few crucial seconds, allowing for a fatal final strike. The last three blows landed by Xander hit three key pressure points and, looking back on the previous ones, he immediately identified other struck points as pressure points as well. There were a few blows that did not hit these areas but that was more than likely an attempt to obscure what he was doing from those watching. In the end the results were the same and Temari found her body woefully disabled, allowing the Uchiha to deliver a final blow to send her skidding across the ground. After coming to a stop, he could still see some movement from the blonde young woman but it didn't look like she'd be able to get back to her feet very easily, much less continue the fight. While there were ways of regaining full use of one's body after receiving an assault to one's pressure points, it was anyone's guess whether or not Temari knew of one that could get her back in the fight.

After a third failed try, it was clear that she did not and so the battle came to an end.

"Winner: Uchiha Alexander!" Declared Examiner Genma pointing to the young man who looked to be feeling the burn after his exertions.

However he had no doubt that the young man's youthful spirit would restore his strength in time for his next match against Aburame Shino.

The future sparring partner for his adorable Lee would need it.

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	16. The Spark That Lit the Fire

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this fanfic whatsoever and do not plan to in the future. I write this for my own personal enjoyment and whatever entertainment my readers might find in reading my works.

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_**Floor of the Konoha Stadium, Two Minutes Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

"Here. Let me help you." Xander said as he knelt down next to Temari and began to strike the points on her body that would undo the damage he'd done.

He kept his growing exhaustion at bay while he hit point after point, just like the scroll had said, and before long he was done. The surprise on her face as she rose to her feet made him grin but as he stood up himself he found himself experiencing a second or two of dizziness as the amount of chakra he'd used in the last two matches finally caught up with him. He'd gone a bit overboard, used several high level techniques, and as a result was feeling the drain quite acutely. Still it had been a measured risk and it had also been part of his plans for dealing with Temari and Shikamaru from the beginning. The only thing that hadn't happened according to plan was the fact that he'd had to fight his matches back to back. He'd thought that he'd at least be given a ten to fifteen minute break in between or that one of the other matches would be carried out but that hadn't happened thanks to his cousin Sasuke. When that kid got here he was going to make it clear that inheriting Kakashi's tendency to arrive late was not a good thing, especially when it caused trouble for others. After steadying himself, he began to walk towards the stairs that would take him back up to the waiting room where the other participants in the final matches were waiting. He'd brought some food with him and, according to Anko-sensei, everything in his bag was good for replenishing chakra quickly and wouldn't go through him quickly. This was a good thing since it'd be kind of embarrassing for him to be all juiced up to fight only to have to make a dash for the nearest men's bathroom halfway through.

"Wait!" Temari asked as she grabbed ahold of his shoulder, "Why did you fix me?"

"Because we're allies and it didn't seem right to leave you there until your body recovered enough to move on its own," he replied, looking over his shoulder. "Besides, it's good sportsmanship to help your opponent up after a match."

With that response he freed himself from her grip with a jerk of his shoulder and continued on towards the doorway leading to the stairs. However before he got on the first step he figured he should say one more thing just in case he'd accidently offended her or something.

"You fought well. If you hadn't fallen for my trick I probably wouldn't have won." He yelled before turning halfway towards her, "Howsabout a rematch in a year's time? You name the time and the place and I'll be there. Whattaya say?"

"I say you'd better mark that day on your calendar because that's the day you're going to get the beating of your life." Temari replied with a smile on her face that spoke of desired retribution but also of respect.

"See ya there then." He said as he turned back towards the stairs and began his march up them.

With a pleased smile on his face, he began to think on what would happen next. Hopefully he'd managed to buy his cousin enough time to get to the stadium because he'd really hate for all his hard work to be for nothing. Looking up at a clock that hung on the wall at the top of the stairs, he saw that it had been a little more than twenty-five minutes since the final matches began. He wondered how the rest of Team Anko was doing and what they'd thought of his matches. Ayeka would probably have nothing but compliments for him but, considering that she was determined to wed and bed him, he always had to take her compliments in the context in which they were given. Hana would probably only reluctantly give him any praise and most likely would criticize what he did do right until she was satisfied that her nickname 'Wannabe' fit him perfectly. Anko-sensei, thankfully, would be in the middle as far as he was concerned and praise his good moves while jokingly saying that she'd schedule some training sessions tomorrow to whip him into shape. Whether or not she'd really drag him off tomorrow to train more he didn't know and, quite frankly, he'd prefer to put off thinking about that for as long as possible.

It took him a couple of minutes to reach the waiting room where he saw Shino looking down at the arena floor, that creepy Gaara standing a few feet to the left whereas Pajama Boy took a few steps back so as to allow his teammate Temari to leap over the railing. Apparently blondie had chosen to take the wall up to the room despite coming fresh from a match. She had to have some pretty good stamina in order to do that and for a moment his mind wondered if she had equal stamina in other more **personal** areas. This thought was quickly squashed since he didn't need the sort of hassle that thought might cause if he pursued it any further. Sitting down where he'd left his bag, he immediately opened it up and began to scarf down the food he'd brought with him as swiftly as possible without looking like a complete slob. After finishing the first package of food, he popped in his second food pill of the day in order to accelerate his recovery even further. He knew that there was some sort of limit as to how many he could have during the course of a day before the 'too much of a good thing' scenario kicked in but he was fairly certain he was still safely below that limitation. Whether or not he made it to the end of the Chuunin Exam Final Matches without swallowing another was anyone's guess.

He was onto his third package when he heard the sounds coming from the crowd change from booing to cheering and therefore got to his feet. Walking over to the railing he soon saw the cause of the change in mood and had to smile himself as he saw both Hatake Kakashi and his cousin Uchiha Sasuke.

_Looks like my taking two matches back to back just paid off. _He thought as he watched the duo speak with the examiner, _I hope his training paid off because I don't think it'll go over with the crowd very well if he just used the same old moves from before the Chuunin Exam._

Watching as the redheaded freak walked towards the stairs, he found his wish that his cousin had improved grow as he didn't like the look on the kid's face one bit. It was a look that managed to outdo even Drusilla in terms on insanity and reminded him of one of those mad asylum inmates who'd literally jump on you screeching before taking a very bloody bite out of your arm. Add to that the feeling of death that he could feel fluctuating around the Sand ninja and Xander wondered for the tenth time just what had happened to the gourd-carrying shinobi to make him crack so much. Definitely not something he'd ever want to experience himself or anyone else for that matter since he had a feeling it involved quite a bit of pain.

It took about five minutes before Gaara reached the arena floor and one additional minute before the Sand ninja was standing right across from Sasuke with the Examiner between the two. Finishing off the bag in his hands, he prepared himself for one helluva match and made sure that he could activate his Sharingan the moment something interesting began to take place. After all, if his cousin did learn a few new techniques, then he wanted to know how to do them even if it'd take some practice before he executed them just right.

_Let the games begin!_ He thought as the long staring match between the two Genin came to an end.

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_**Uchiha Sasuke versus Gaara of the Sand**_

The match didn't start out as smoothly as most would think since, about five seconds after Gaara began to cause sand to rise up out of the top of his gourd, an episode of pain seemed to come over the redhead. Using his right hand to grip his head the Genin seemed to be talking to himself but so softly that the words didn't carry very far at all. Eventually, though, the episode came to an end as the sand dropped to the ground and a more focused look came over the face of Temari's teammate. Sasuke then attacked with a pair of shuriken but, much like in the match with Rock Lee, the sand from Gaara's gourd intercepted the projectiles before they even got close.

What was different this time, though, was that instead of simply dropping the pieces of metal to the ground the barrier transformed itself into a replica of the Sand ninja with the throwing stars grasped between the fingers of its right hand.

With long range attacks being useless, the black-clad ninja chose to charge in but was counterattacked with a stream of sand no doubt sent with the intent of doing serious bodily harm. The member of Team Seven took to the air to avoid the assault only to make himself a target of the very shuriken he'd thrown minutes before. Sasuke wasn't so easily hit and he threw two more throwing stars to knock the ones coming at him off course, thus allowing him to erase the gap between him and his target. With his first kick he managed to destroy the arms of the Sand clone and then kipped up off of the ground to land on his feet. With great speed delivered a backhand to the clone's throat in an effort to disperse it but instead the sand that made up the replica merely wrapped itself around his cousin's limb to trap it. Not a bad idea but also not an effective one either since a palm thrust to the thing's face finished it off quickly, allowing Sasuke to close the gap between himself and Gaara. With a right punch it looked like the survivor of the massacre thought that he could now score a hit but anyone who saw the match between the Sand ninja and Lee would know differently. The only reason why Maito Gai's protégé was able to hit the redhead was because the taijutsu specialist was able to move faster than the sand getting in the way. A normal punch such as the one the member of Team Seven was using would not accomplish its goal of introducing pain to its intended target.

In a blur of motion, though, Uchiha Sasuke proved he knew this all too well and came prepared.

One second he was in front of the Sand ninja about to slam his fist into a barrier of sand and the next he was right behind Gaara, ready to make sure his blow landed. It didn't take a genius to see where this was going, especially for those who had seen the redhead's fight in the preliminary matches. Somehow his cousin had managed to vastly increase his speed and, as he activated his Sharingan in order to keep up, he began to see just how far ahead his cousin was when compared to where he was. With a high speed punch Sasuke succeeded in landing a blow on the Sand ninja's face, sending the gourd-carrying youth to the ground. While the sand acted on its own to cushion the impact, the damage had been done and the once invincible Gaara of the Sand was now not quite so unbeatable. The member of Team Seven chose to capitalize on this by taking up a classic Rock Lee pose and daring his foe to counterattack.

When Gaara didn't respond, the younger Uchiha's impatience took over and, with even greater speed than before, his cousin charged forward, easily evading any defensive or offensive moves sent his way. The sand used by the redhead might as well have been moving in super slow motion for all the good it did and, once Sasuke got in close once more, he delivered a powerful high kick that again sent the Sand ninja to the ground. After a little more trash talking, the member of Team Seven went on the offensive once more and, again, it was at a speed level that surpassed what the revenge-driven kid had shown before. It wasn't so fast that his Sharingan couldn't keep up with it but it made him want to know how his cousin could manage such a drastic increase in only one month. Focusing his eyes on his cousin, he tried to make sense of what his kekkai genkai was telling him. To his eyes it looked as though Sasuke was generating far more chakra than normal but instead of letting it fly about as it would, he appeared to have it under strict control. This abundant amount of energy appeared to be directed forcefully down certain pathways and up others, almost as though it was enhancing the performance of the entire body. Just about every ninja was capable of using their chakra to enhance the strength or speed of their body but this was something different. When others did it, they directed the energy to specific limbs and held it there but this seemed to distribute the chakra throughout the body without any weak spots that he could see.

_This is definitely a trick I want to learn!_ He thought was he watched her relative once more breach Gaara's defenses to deliver a five hit combo that emphasized power.

With a final blow Sasuke sent the Sand ninja flying away and made just about everyone, himself included, believe that this fight was more or less over. Uchiha Sasuke had proven that Gaara could not land a blow on him and that any sand defense set up could be quickly circumvented. Unless the redhead did something truly original, it was only a matter of time before his cousin's opponent was defeated.

Gaara of the Sand understood this as well because, after forming the standard seal for forming charka, the sand from the youth's gourd began to take on a new shape. The shape was that of a sphere with the Sand shinobi at the center and, with every second that passed, it became more and more complete. He didn't know what the purpose of this technique was but Sasuke took the right action by moving in at top speed in the hopes of preventing the jutsu's completion. However he was just a few seconds too late as the sphere of sand finished forming and, had it not been for his relation's Sharingan, the spikes that shot out from it might have done some serious harm. His relative jumped clear a few moments later and the spikes flowed back into the sphere, leaving not but a smooth brown surface behind. Considering how much energy was flowing through Sasuke, the sand must have been pretty hard indeed and thus it would take some thinking to find a way to defeat it.

Once again displaying some impatience, his cousin began to attack the sphere from multiple vectors in an effort to learn more about it. While learning about a foes jutsu was important in eventually overcoming it, it also cost the ninja both in time as well as in energy. Eventually, after several close calls with some sand spikes, his relation once more withdrew and, after a few moments of consideration, began to put some distance between himself and his opponent. Knowing that this could be a precursor to something big, he focused his eyes completely on Sasuke and committed everything he saw to memory. The member of Team Seven was a fair distance away but he could still see the hand seals being formed without having to worry too much about making a mistake.

_Monkey, Dragon, Rat, Bird, Ox, Snake, Dog, Tiger and Monkey._ Xander thought without breaking his concentration on his cousin, _Definitely an A rank jutsu but what--?_

He got his answer rather quickly when a massive amount of chakra began to coalesce in Sasuke's right hand, eventually taking on the form of electricity. Accompanying it was a sound that could only be described as hundreds of birds all chirping at once and very loudly because he doubted there was a single person in the stadium that couldn't hear the sound. Then, when both the energy and the sound both reached their peak, his cousin began to run down the side of the wall he'd been perched on with all the speed he could manage. The amazing thing though was the damage that was being done to the wall, even though the focus of this unknown jutsu wasn't touching it at all. For such damage to be done without touching the wall meant the level of power being used was seriously high. When his relative touched down on the floor of the arena, though, he began to worry about how effective the move would be since it looked like Sasuke planned on just charging right in like an arrow shot from a bow. Both his memories of his Halloween personae and what he'd learned since coming to Konoha told him that straight on attacks were not very effective, since such assaults were easy to counter. When that was added to the fact that the sphere of sand could send out spikes in any direction and it looked like the local born Uchiha was setting himself up to get skewered. It was then, though, that he realized that unlike most ninja, his cousin had an advantage that would allow him to hit his target unharmed.

His Sharingan.

With the Uchiha family's kekkai genkai, seeing things at high speed was possible and, combined with the high speed body he now possessed, Sasuke would have no trouble bypassing the sphere's defenses and hitting his target. Thus, with a mighty final screech, the jutsu successfully pierced the sand sphere, allowing his cousin to push in as far as his elbow and that should be more than enough to hit Gaara. With a little luck the match was now over with the Sand ninja being either seriously injured or dead. Either would be okay since the former would mean the match would only last a few moments longer and the latter would end things the moment the examiner confirmed the redhead's death.

"BLOOD! MY BLOOD!" Screeched Gaara from within his sand sphere, confirming that the lightning element jutsu had scored a hit.

Not an immediately fatal one.

Then it suddenly looked as though his cousin was desperately trying to pull his arm out of the sphere but, when physical strength failed, his relation reactivated the jutsu he'd just used. This had a slightly better effect except that along with his arm something else emerged from the sand sphere. An arm made of sand covered in purple markings with easily visible claws at the end reached out to grab ahold of the person who had harmed the ninja within. Fortunately his cousin was able to get out of reach in time but it was a near thing and as he watched the arm slither back into the sphere he had a bad feeling about what was about to happen.

He was not wrong.

A few seconds later a bestial roar sprung forth from the sphere along with a wave of chakra that made what he'd felt in the hospital seem like a mild case of the wiggins by comparison. Whatever Gaara was doing inside of that sphere was **NOT** natural and did not belong in this world one little bit. Hearing the sound of something dropping to the floor, he looked down to see that his hands were trembling in response to this unnatural feeling. Clenching them into fists, he willed them to stop shaking and berated himself for getting so shook up without knowing all of the details first.

Looking back down at the arena floor, he was surprised to see cracks forming on the surface of the sphere and then without warning the once impenetrable sphere began to dissolve into its tiny individual pieces. What it revealed, though, was Gaara breathing heavily with one arm limp, a bleeding wound in that arm's shoulder and the other hand pressed over the wound in an effort to stem the bleeding. He was about to think about how things would proceed from there when all of a sudden hundreds and hundreds of white feathers began to fall down in front of his eyes. However he knew that they weren't real since with his Sharingan still active he could tell that this was some form of genjutsu and immediately formed the hand seal for generating chakra. Then, after getting a second or two feel of how the technique was affecting him, he sent out a pulse of chakra that was stronger than the illusion technique being used on him. Almost immediately the feathers disappeared but since he didn't see any of the other Genin in the waiting room acting funny he could only conclude that they weren't behind the jutsu. However, considering that most person-specific genjutsu required that the user be within a certain range, that would imply that this was an area affecting illusion technique. How big was the area? A portion of the stadium? All of it? He didn't know but he seriously didn't like what this implied. Considering the number of important people in attendance plus the fact that this was taking place within the village walls it could be anything from an assassination attempt to a prelude to an invasion.

_Either way I have a feeling things are going to get a __**bit**__ complicated from here on out. _He thought as he decided to hook up with the rest of Team Anko.

He almost missed the sound of an explosion coming from the seats reserved for the Hokage and Kazekage.

He didn't miss the plume of smoke rising from that spot.

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_**The Stands of the Arena, Four Minutes Later**_

"Well, sisters, it looks like its time to have a little bit of fun." the first young woman said as she seemed to vanish from her clothes only to reappear a few feet away dressed in a heavily modified version of a Sound ninja uniform. "Time to pick up our bait!"

"Oh? And just who named you leader, Tomiko?" Asked another young woman who left her civilian clothes behind to appear in a nearly identical Sound ninja uniform, "Orochimaru-sama gave this mission to all three of us. He did not name a leader."

"Shut up, Tomoko! I am the most powerful among the three of us therefore **I** am the logical one to lead our team!" Tomiko yelled as a third young female Sound ninja appeared next to them.

"Silence! You both know the mission. You both know how **important** it is." Stated the third ninja of Orochimaru coldly as she glared at the two of them, "Do you want to be the one to inform Orochimaru-sama that we failed because of your constant bickering?"

This brought the two bickering sisters to a halt in their arguing as they instantly recalled how they were punished the last time that they failed in accomplish an important mission. All of them shuddered for a moment in fear before their desire not to be punished again hardened their resolve to be harder than diamond. At once the three of them ran off to where they knew their prey was located and less than a minute later had all three targets in sight. Just as predicted, the trio were distracted by the smoke signal and the other things that were happening up on the Kage's balcony and so they would take full advantage of this opportunity.

Splitting apart into three separate directions, they came at the objectives of the first phase of the mission with weapons bared. The two little girls and the bitch sensed them coming almost the minute they went on the attack but by then it was too late. Taking out the kunai specifically prepared for this mission, all three Sound Sisters threw their weapons at precisely the same moment with uncanny mimickry of movement. Like this had all been foreseen, the Konoha trio brought their own kunai to bear in order to deflect the incoming projectiles. This had been counted on since they knew that if their prey evaded their weapons would kill unconscious civilians and that the weak ninja of this village would never allow that to happen.

It would have been better for them if they had evaded because the instant the two sets of kunai hit the ones that had been thrown shattered, releasing a cloud of powder that blanketed the targets completely. It wouldn't kill them, for some reason Orochimaru-sama insisted on that, but it would render them completely paralyzed for the next five hours straight. Plenty of time for them to watch what would happen next but be helpless to do anything to stop it. The only problem was that the dog girl's dogs had been able to evade the cloud of powder but they had been prepared for that possibility as well. Tossing three flash spheres, it was gratifying to hear the sounds of the dogs whine as their sense of sight was overwhelmed but not one of the devious trio allowed this to delay them from acquiring their targets. Lifting one target apiece, they were about to start phase two of the mission when it literally came to them in the form of one Uchiha Alexander who emerged from the stairs that led to a lower level of the stadium.

"You don't mind if we borrow your team for awhile do you?" Tomiko asked with mock politeness in her voice.

Without waiting for a reply Tomoko threw a trio of kunai that had explosive tags on them at the wall closest to them, blasting a hole for them to escape through. As soon as the dust cleared, all three of them leapt through and began making for the area of the village that should be cleared of all troublemakers if those slackers in the main invasion group did their job right. Orochimaru had been very specific about where he wanted them to lure the Uchiha and what to say once they arrived there. Deviating from the plan even a little would not be tolerated. All three of them knew this. So even as they heard the sounds of their pursuer coming up from behind them, with the three mutts along for the ride, they merely increased their speed enough to maintain the distance between the two groups. They would not allow the one who possessed the kekkai genkai Sharingan to catch up to them until they reached the designated area and then they would explain everything.

Then Tomoko, Tomiko and Toshiko would discover whether this Uchiha was smart enough to know a good thing when he heard it.

That and if the Uchiha was worthy enough to join the ranks of the Sound ninja.

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_**The Rooftops of Konoha, Two Minutes Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_DAMN BITCHES!! What is that pale-faced fucker up to now?!_ Xander thought as he fought to keep up with the trio of female Sound ninja running away with the rest of Team Anko, _These are his troops running around alongside the ninja from the Hidden Village of Sand. What the __**HELL**__ is going on!?!_

He didn't know for certain but, offhand, he'd have to say that the Sand ninja had betrayed Konoha and were now working with their Sound ninja allies to either conquer or destroy the village. He didn't know which it was but it was clear that the snake eyed bastard had something special planned for him if he'd specifically ordered three of his female ninja to abduct Team Anko. As much as he would like to, though, he couldn't make an attempt to overtake them because that would cost him far too much chakra and he had a feeling he'd need as much as he could very soon. Hana's dogs would make sure that they didn't lose the three sluts while Ava would keep an eye out for any ambushes or enemy groups heading their way. Between the four animals there would hopefully be few or, rather, no obstructions keeping him from rescuing his team from the clutches of Orochimaru's concubines. He just hoped that the deck wasn't stacked too much against him or else he was going to be seriously hurting or seriously **dead** before the day was out. After all, he didn't know what level the three were at, nor what sort of tricks and gizmos the Kage of the Sound Village had kitted them out with prior to this mission. He could have trained them specifically to fight an Uchiha and if that was the case then the best he could probably hope for was that some of the chaos from the invasion would spill over into his fight providing him with an opening he could use.

It was another three minutes of roof hopping before the scantily clad trio came to a stop in the middle of one of the many intersections of streets the dotted the village. It was thankfully deserted of any innocent civilians but, judging by the red stain on the ground near where he and the animal partners landed, he doubted everyone had made it clear unharmed. Still it was best not to be distracted by things that he could not investigate at the moment or confirm in any reliable manner. He had three big problems right in front of him and he had to deal with them before he could move onto anything else.

"Well I think this is as good a place as any, eh, Uchiha?" Asked the one who had spoken to him back at the stadium.

"If you mean this is a good place for you three to get your butts beaten black and blue, then it is a good place to get down to business." He said as he began to covertly assess the environment around him, "Now howsabout you three tell me who you are and what this is all about? If you wanted to get my attention there were easier ways of going about it."

"True, but those other ways you could turn us down. This way we knew you'd come." Stated another of the Sound Trio with a cruel smile on her lips, "As for who we are, I am Tomoko, this is Tomiko and that is Toshiko. We are the Sound Three and we have been ordered by Orochimaru-sama to find the limits of your power."

"Another test? What does he want?" He asked, not liking the sounds of this considering how he faired during the last test old snake face put him through.

"Depending on how you do, we'll do whatever we can to answer your questions." Tomoko said before she roughly tossed Anko-sensei up against the side of a nearby building, "First, though, my sisters and I need to get rid of some dead weight."

With perfect timing the other two Sound ninjas threw Hana and Ayeka at the same wall and it was mere chance that they hit it in such a way that bruises would be the worst of the injuries. He growled at this move but he didn't say anything since he was fairly certain it'd only encourage them to do something worse to provoke a better reaction.

"Time to see if what we've heard about Uchiha Alexander is fact or just Sakon talking shit." Tomiko said as she pulled two kunai out and held them in the stabbing position, "Prepare yourself, **UCHIHA!**"

All three attack him at once and he barely had time to pull out his own kunai before he was right in the thick of things. Right away he found himself pressured and forced to bring his Sharingan to bear in order to keep up with the three bitches attempting to kill him. This was definitely different than his previous battles and, while he might have been able to handle two at once without using his Kekkai Genkai, but three on one made his bloodline limit downright essential for survival. As he fought, he did his best to remember the rules of fighting multiple foes at one time. Rule number one: never let an enemy get behind you. This was a basic rule for every ninja but it was made all the more vital when you had to keep track of more than one foe. Rule number two: Never get backed into a corner because that makes the only way out through your enemies. He did his best to follow these rules and thankfully the intersection of streets was big enough it could almost be called a town square or courtyard. Still he needed to come up with some way to break up their coordinated offensive or else they were going to land a blow sooner rather than later.

Fortunately he had something he'd been saving for his match with Shino that should do the trick.

After the last of his potential future wives gave up their morning pursuit of him, he still had a few stink spheres left over. He'd intended on saving them until he got back to the Hellmouth to see how they'd affect vampires and other demons that had an enhanced sense of smell. When he was preparing for the final matches, though, he considered that the smell might successful in messing with Shino's ability to control his bugs. Bugs were, after all, the Aburame clan's specialty and if he could keep the member of Team Kurenai from putting together a coordinated attack, he'd have the battle half won. Now, though, that the Final Matches were effectively cancelled, he now had a new use for them and hopefully it'd buy him the opportunity he needed. Jumping into the air and reaching into his equipment pouch, he quickly found what he sought and threw the green spheres and the Sound ninja. Two hit their targets dead center but the other missed and hit the ground instead but, thanks to the nature of smoke and stink spheres, when their contents were released, the area they covered expanded considerably. His nose hairs curled up when the smell hit him but, based on the exclamations and curses he was hearing, the ladies from the Hidden Village of Sound were not having a good time.

Good. If they were too busy focusing on the smell, then they would not be as determined to continue their assault on him providing him with an opening.

He had to use it well.

Thinking hard about the present situation and what he had at his disposal, he went with the first possibility that came to mind.

Quickly taking out four shuriken and his spool of near invisible monofilament, he quickly cut off the required lengths of wire and tied one end to a shuriken until each one had its own separate wire attached. Seeing the Sound Three beginning to look about for him, he knew he had to act now if he wanted to prevent things from settling into old patterns. He threw the shurikens as swiftly as he could while using the wires attached to guide the path they took passing through the air with the greatest of ease. He was new to this and only had a couple of nights practicing but he figured there was no time like the present to see if he'd finally gotten the hang of it. Watching as the shuriken looped around telephone poles and streetlights until a spider web of wire was formed around the three kunoichi. Then once the shuriken finally reached the end of their wires, he began to form hand seals as quickly as they could to finish this strategy he had thought up.

"ARASHI KANMON NO JUTSU!!"

While it was true that this technique was originally designed to be a purely defensive jutsu, he'd already proven it could be used offensively if modified just right. He'd used it to seal Orochimaru's movements and then launch an offensive attack in an effort to end the battle immediately. In this case, though, he planned on using the technique to put the trio right in the center of one helluva electrical storm that hopefully would end this fight sooner than they'd intended. When he heard them start to scream in pain, he thought his plan had worked but then all three exploded into clouds of smoke, revealing that what he had truly caught in his web had been kage bunshin. His question of when they'd managed to switch places was answered, almost immediately, when he realized that his stink sphere diversion was responsible. While it had been a good idea to use the smell to distract them, it had also provided them with a few seconds of cover so that they could create the shadow clones and then conceal themselves. Looking around, he did his best to spot them because he knew that it was in the seconds after a failed assault that most enemy ninja would attack since it'd be a moment where one's guard was momentarily unstable. He had to find them and figure out where to raise his guard or else their next prove could prove to be the last one they ever needed to make.

A spike of killer intent was the only warning he received.

It was barely enough.

From thee separate rooftops they appeared and came at him like they were he could only block two of the three while leaving his back exposed to the last one.

SCCRRREEEEECH!!

"What the…aaahhhh!!" cried Toshiko as Ava got into the woman's face, completely messing up her part in the three front attack.

It just so happened that Toshiko was the one that had been in prime position to attack him from behind if he tried to fend off the other two without changing his position. With a smile he brought his kunai back to bear and pushed the Sound ninja to his right into the path of the one coming from at his left. Then just to make sure that this worked in his favor, he chose to execute a spinning heel kick once he was sure the enemy on his right could no longer make good on her attack but needed some help meeting up with her partner. He couldn't help but smile as things went his way with one Sound bitch slamming into the other and both of them being sent to the ground.

Taking the time to look around, he saw that Hana's animal partners had taken up guard positions in front of the rest of Team Anko. This was good since it'd mean he could focus all of his attention in the Sound ninja rather than have to worry about them being taken as hostages. Turning to the Sound Trio, he saw that they were back on their feet and, aside from a few minor scrapes and bruises, they seemed to be no worse for wear than he was.

"Well, well, well! Looks like Sakon might have actually have been telling the truth." Toshiko said with amusement that did not bode well for him, "Too bad. Warm up's over. The real test begins now!! Do it, sisters!!"

With those words the trio once again divided up until there were position in three separate spots around him forming a triangle. As he noticed this he saw two of the three begin to form a complex set of hand seals at a speed that meant catching both techniques from start to finish impossible. In the end he was only about to get a basic idea of what level the techniques were at and that they were two different techniques rather than a single jutsu being performed by two people. He braced himself for what was to come.

"SHIN'EN OTO NO JUTSU!!" Tomiko shouted before letting loose a momentary screech of sound before falling silent.

"SHIN'EN JOUKEI NO JUTSU!!" Tomoko cried before massive amounts of black smoke began to spill from her mouth and wrap itself around him.

_The Abyss Sound technique and the Abyss Sight technique._ He thought as his mind automatically translated their words into Enlgish, _Never heard of them before but they don't sound good at all. Still, I should be able to keep track of them with my Sharingan, no matter what._

At least that was what he thought in between switching his focus from Tomoko to Toshiko, since the latter was the most likely to take advantage of this strategy. When he gazed upon the spot where he **knew** she was, though, he could see nothing but chakra endowed smoke that made it pretty much like he had a blindfold over his eyes. Had she disappeared or changed locations while his attention was elsewhere? Darting his gaze around in multiple directions, he tried to find the missing Sound kunoichi but to no avail. In fact he soon realized that he had completely lost all three of them and that was **SO** not of the good.

WHAM!

Something struck him in the back of the head, sending him to the ground but reflexes and training with Hana made it second nature for him to immediately get back to his feet. Getting into a solid defensive posture, he tried to figure out where the attack had come from and what precisely he'd been attacked with. He hadn't heard anything coming his way, nor had his Sharingan detected the usual mass of chakra that usually signified a person, regardless of whether it was a clone or the real McCoy. Even if they were moving at high speeds, he would have seen **something**! None of them appeared to be any stronger than a Chuunin and there hadn't been a single competitor of the Exam that he hadn't been able to follow with his eyes. This didn't make any **sense**!

"What's wrong, ladies?!" He asked as loudly as he could, "You don't want to play with the Xan-man anymore?!"

At least that's what he tried to say but, even though he knew he was applying the right mouth movements along with just the right amount of air, his ears hadn't heard so much as a peep vibrate through the air. He tried again and this time he tried to yell as loudly as he could but nothing broke the eerie silence that surrounded him. It was then that he figured out what the Abyss Sound technique must do.

"Looks like you figured part of it out, Uchiha, but allow me to explain it more fully," Came Toshiko's voice from everywhere yet nowhere. "The first technique, Shin'en Oto no Jutsu, allows Tomiko to generate a sound wave that completely cancels out all others within range of the jutsu, save those she permits. This has rendered it utterly impossible for you to use your sense of hearing to determine our locations or hear our approach as we prepare to attack you. The second attack, Shin'en Joukei no Jutsu, produces a cloud of black smoke so thoroughly imbued with chakra that even with your fabled Sharingan it will be impossible for you to locate us with your eyes."

SHIT!!

"Perhaps in the split second before my attack lands you might be able to perceive me but by then it'll be too late to do anything but feel the pain," Toshiko continued with unbelievable smugness in her voice. "Of course if you somehow manage to overcome this little situation, then you will have passed Orochimaru-sama's test and proven yourself worthy to join the Hidden Village of Sound. If not… well… killing an Uchiha is quite the feather in our cap as you Americans put it. Shall we see how the future unfolds?"

_Not good! If those techniques work as advertised, I am essentially blind and deaf!_ He thought as a little bit of fear began to creep into his mind, _Even if I somehow manage to pull a miracle out of my ass I'll probably be too banged up to do anything but use harsh language while these bitches drag me to see ole snake face!! __**DAMMIT**__!_

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_**The Rooftop of the Kage Balcony, Three Minutes Later, The Third Hokage's P.O.V**_

_There. At least I have removed or at least reduced the threats represented by First and Second._ Sarutobi thought as he rose to his feet in preparation for his former student's next move, _Even if they are still able to move with those missing limbs, they will not be able to fight effectively._

At least that was what he hoped he'd managed to do by detonating the explosive tags he attached to the left leg of the First Hokage and the right arm of the Second Hokage. However he somehow doubted that his inhuman opponent had gone to all this trouble just to have it cut short with two simple tricks. He was proven right almost immediately as he watched the bits and pieces of the destroyed limbs glide back together like leaves on the wind. Within seconds both of the fighting dolls Orochimaru had managed to summon using the Edo Tensei technique were ready to fight once more and, once again, he was back to where he was moments ago.

_So it seems that I must do something about the soul that is bound with the Edo Tensei if I am to defeat them._ He thought as this new bit of intelligence nullified most jutsus he knew, _If that's the case, I'll have to use the Fourth's technique. First, Second… please forgive me. I am going to use that technique on you!_

Clapping his hands together he began gathering the necessary chakra for the technique and preparing for the cost that came along with this jutsu. At no point though did he take his mind off of the form of his treacherous disciple since he highly doubted that the snake-eyed man would allow him to complete the jutsu.

"Sensei. You seem to be out of breath." Orochimaru said with false concern as he took up a position behind his mystical sword, "You have aged. I've never seen you in pain like that before. Heheheheh!"

"What's so funny?" He asked hoping to make use of his student's fondness for his own voice to buy himself the time he needed.

"It's pitiful. Even you, the one who has been praised as the God of all ninja, cannot beat old age." Orochimaru replied as he reached up to his own face and began to peel off skin like a snake.

What was revealed to be beneath that skin was not the face of the person he'd been fighting since the barrier had gone up, but rather that of a young woman the same age as Anko. Had he been deceived from the beginning? Was this all a deception on this woman's part? Using the appearance of his former student in order to gather allies and support for an attack on Konoha?

"Who are you?!" He asked angrily even as a pit of dread began to form within him.

"Looks like you cannot comprehend it due to how abrupt it was." Spoke the woman with contempt, "It's me. Orochimaru."

It was then that he remembered the last time he'd seen his foolish student and the claim that the mad Jounin had made in that secret underground laboratory. It was ludicrous but at the same time what he had experience for the past couple of minutes lent considerable credibility to the claim this… this thing had just made.

"Did you… complete that forbidden technique?!" he exclaimed in disbelief and shock.

The twisted smile and the insane tittering he heard was all the confirmation he needed and he found himself disgusted with the depths to which his former apprentice had sunk.

"You're a terrible and inhuman existence!" he declared with all the anger and condemnation he could muster.

To this Orochimaru only began to laugh loudly and with the utmost amusement at the statement he'd just made.

Also the madness he heard made him believe that his former student had become somewhat unhinged.

"It has been ten and a few years since I left the village and I went through a lot of trouble to perfect this technique." Stated Orochimaru once he'd gotten his fill of laughter.

"I could not appoint you to be the Fourth Hokage because of your twisted ideas!" he said, making it clear why Minato had been chosen.

It had been a little over twelve years ago that there had been a rash of disappearances throughout the village, ranging from children to Chuunin to even a few members of ANBU. No bodies were ever found but the little evidence they were able to find indicated that most of the victims did not go quietly. For weeks the village was examined for some sign as to whether the threat came from within or from without but with no true success. It wasn't until Jiraiya pointed out some odd behavior on the part of Orochimaru that a possible lead surfaced. It wasn't much, just some tardiness as well as some odd sightings during the night, but it had been enough for him to shadow his former pupil along with two ANBU. It had taken seven days of shadowing but eventually they'd managed to locate what they thought was the Snake Sannin's hidden lair. When the time had come to enter this lair, he found more than enough evidence along the way that someone had something down in the sewers that they didn't want anyone to stumble across. It wasn't until the three of them had actually entered the room that the guilt of Orochimaru could not be denied. Shelves full of internal organs, coffins lining the walls and in the center of it all was the pale skinned ninja himself working on something or more likely **someone**.

They confronted him with their evidence and demanded that he explain himself but even now he doubted that anyone at the time could have predicted what would be said next. The reason for the kidnappings, the reason why so many loved ones had vanished, had all been so that one of the most respected ninjas in the entire village could develop a new technique! Not just any technique, though, but one that would grant eternal life along with eternal youth upon the person who was able to master the jutsu. It was not a new idea, many ninja throughout the region had at one time or another in their histories had tried to find a way to cheat death or retain their youthful bodies forever. Some did it for power while others did it purely for vanity's sake but all of them were either caught or killed before they could accomplish their goal. Never had he wished before or since that moment that something could be a nightmare he could wake up from.

Well almost never…

"This immortality technique keeps one's mind in this world forever," Orochimaru explained, using the shell of a young woman to speak aloud. "In other words, it is a reincarnation technique where after I find a new body I transfer my mind into the body and take over. Heheheh. I disguised myself as my old self so that you could feel delighted at seeing me again, Sensei."

_It is far more likely that you chose your old face for the psychological advantage it would afford you._ He thought as he began to wonder how many had suffered because he hadn't killed this serpent when he'd had the chance.

"Aging is pointless. That is what I feel when I look at you." Spoke his former disciple with evil in his eyes, "You will die here. And I will gain a younger, stronger, and more beautiful body. Konoha entertains me greatly."

_So he desires my death and believes he will gain a new body from this attack on Konoha._ He thought as he sifted through the arrogance to get at the true meat of the words, _Who could he…? Wait! Of course!_

Now the actions of his former student during the second phase of the Chuunin Exam made sense and the meaning of the words became crystal clear, despite the horrific future they implied if everything went as Orochimaru intended.

"I see. You're after the two Uchiha boys."

"Yes. You are correct. Originally I had just planned on acquiring Sasuke once he'd grown a bit more to my liking, but then another Uchiha had been brought to my attention." Orochimaru declared with a smile that implied thoughts best not contemplated for one second longer than necessary, "Alexander, while not one born in Konoha, has nevertheless proven himself a worthy subject in my eyes. Resourceful, innovative and possessing a body much closer to what I require than his cousin. In fact, I suspect that all that is lagging behind in his growth is his mind and that can be adjusted easily enough.

"Truth be told, I have not quite decided on which of them will become my new vessel so I've decided to take them both and decide later," continued his former student with First and Second standing to either side of him. "For now, though, I will finish what I have started with you."

With those words the fighting doll of the First Hokage formed a hand seal and sent four vines of wood at him but he had anticipated this. Reaching out with his left hand, he grabbed ahold of Enma and executed a jutsu that would erect an unbreakable cage around him that would keep him safe from harm. It had been close though and it had been enough to draw more blood from him as well as take chakra from his body but there was no sense dwelling on what couldn't be changed.

"What's wrong? You haven't been acting like yourself." Enma said as a single monkey eye appeared on the pole in front of him.

"I'm sorry." He said for he knew all too well that he was hold himself back whether it be consciously or subconsciously.

What precisely was holding him back, though, was up for debate. Was it the old teacher and student bond that was flaring up? Was it the guilt of failing in his duties as Hokage of Konoha? Or was it simply the fact that he knew what it would cost him if he wanted to end the threat of his former apprentice forever. It had been so different back then, back when he had a team of Genin to train in the ninja arts, that he almost could not believe it had come to this. Still, even back then, he had seen the malevolence in the eyes of his genius level student but had chosen to ignore it both because he his hope that Orochimaru could be changed and because ninjas of his caliber had been needed at the time. He had hoped that eventually, with the right combination of training and guidance, that he could forge a worthy successor to his power and his will but he had been proven horribly wrong. That had been the conclusion he'd come to twelve years ago but at the time he had not been able to bring himself to kill his favorite pupil.

Now, though, he would make up for that past mistake and kill the evil that he foolishly allowed to leave!

Grabbing ahold of Enma, he willed the cage to disappear and once the space around him was cleared he executed the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu to create two shadow clones of himself. He knew how this would look to outside observers but he was counting on Orochimaru's response since he doubted his idiot apprentice would allow him free reign if he knew the truth.

_Snake, Boar, Ram, Rabbit, Dog, Rat, Bird, Horse and Snake! _He thought as he formed the necessary hand seals before clapping both hands together and keeping them there.

Almost at once he could sense the justu taking effect and, when he looked behind him, he could see the horned form of the Death God take shape. This must have been what the Fourth had told him about in those last moments of life after sealing away Kyuubi inside the body of his newborn son. Only one who has performed this technique can see the Shinigami coming for them and coming for him it was. It was one of the costs of performing this technique: it cost the user their life. Despite his desire to live, he knew that Orochimaru had to be stopped and the images of all those he would be saving was enough for him to steel himself for what was to come.

"It's too late to do anything now. I win." Declared his former pupil standing like a victorious general on the field of battle, "Konoha will perish!!"

"Konoha is my home! The Hokage is the supporter of that home, and shall protect it!" he declared, figuring that these would he sufficient as his last words, "He is also the inheritor of Konoha's will, and passes that will to another. So, you cannot defeat me so easily!"

As the Second Hokage performed a technique that covered everything in sight with an impenetrable darkness, he willed as best he could for the Fourth's technique to hurry up and reach its peak. If the fighting dolls succeeded in killing him before he could accomplish his goal he will have failed his home once more.

_NO! If nothing else, I will complete this last mission no matter what!!_ He thought as he brought up his forearm guard, _Just like a true Konoha Shinobi!!_

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_**The Courtyard/Intersection of Streets, Konoha, Fifteen Minutes Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_N-Not going to last much longer if things keep going this bad!_ Xander thought as he was cut once more for what seemed like the twentieth time.

For the last fifteen minutes, he had struggled to find some way of overcoming this prison of darkness and silence but, if the number of bloody lacerations on his body was any hint, he was not doing well at all. He tried to use equipment from his pouch to learn their locations but either they changed their locations at random or the blackness which surrounded him was denser than it looked. He'd even tried to run out of the black fog but he never got more than six feet before Toshiko attacked, forcing him back into the center once more. It had only been within the last five minutes though that she'd started using kunai in order to make things 'more interesting'.

He'd been bleeding ever since.

They weren't deep cuts, just deep enough to draw a satisfactory amount of blood, but he knew that unless he got them bandaged up soon he would bleed out. Assuming, of course, the bitches let it go that far. He knew that at the moment they were growing impatient with him, that they'd soon forget their mission, and then they'd kill him before going off in search of something more entertaining. Sure, they'd probably get turned into lab rats by Orochimaru for not bringing him back alive but it'd still suck with him being dead and all. Therefore he was still trying to work out some sort of plan to turn things around while at the same time protecting his most important areas from attack.

_Okay! Time to once again play 'what do I know' and hope it works out better this time than before! _He thought as he pulled all the facts he had in his head to the front of the class.

Fact One: the enemy had executed jutsus that eliminated his ability to see anything or hear anything, leaving only his senses of smell, touch and taste available to him. Due to his own blundering he'd have to write off the sense of smell thanks to his stink spheres because even if he were to pick up a stink moving towards him, it'd be incredibly hard to detect. Touch might work but it would depend heavily on how he chose to capitalize on that sense.

Fact Two: There were three enemies but he had a feeling that two of the three needed to focus on the jutsus they were using on him and could not attack him directly. That left only one real enemy to worry about and, if he could somehow eliminate her, then one of the remaining two would have to cease using their technique in order to fill in for her fallen sister. That would either restore his sight or his sense of hearing and that would definitely make winning this fight much easier.

Fact Three: He was on something of a time limit given the number of bleed cuts he had. None were all that deep, just enough for the red start coming out in sufficient quantities to please his tormenters without ending their fun too soon, but sooner or later it would start to affect his performance decreasing the odds that he'd survive this fight.

So he'd established that he might be able to do something with his sense of touch but he had to quickly think of a way to put it to immediate use. He could try tying monofilament wires to his remaining kunai and then throw them out in all directions then focus almost all of his attention on them so that if Toshiko got anywhere near them, he'd feel the vibrations like a spider on its web. That, however, could be too easily circumvented by Toshiko since she could simply cut the wires from a distance or cut then vacating the immediate area before he could hit her. It was as these multitude of thoughts went through his mind that a true moment of madness appeared as he conceived of a way to dispatch Toshiko sooner rather than later. The only problem it relied on something a little too much and would make his own situation worse if he screw up. Still, he'd be screwed anyways and sometimes crazy worked. Therefore with his choice made he began to filter out any sort of unnecessary information and even shut down his Sharingan before closing his eyes entirely. He sharpened his focus until it was razor sharp and then waited for what he sought hoping that it wouldn't take too many tries to get what he wanted.

He got his first try thirty seconds later when he began to feel a blade sink into his skin and, just as he'd planned, he ignored the pain and sent out a kick in the direction he believed Toshiko was located based on how the kunai was cutting him. The blow missed but he thought for a moment that he'd caught the edge of something for a second or two. Reorienting himself, he once more slipped into a state of pure concentration where all of his thoughts were devoted to detecting the blade of his enemy the moment it made contact with his body. He would need his focus and his reflexes at their sharpest if he wanted to score a hit and end this because if he failed too many times the bitch might catch onto what he was attempting. A minute later he felt the bite of the blade and, once again, cast a wide but powerful kick in the direction he believed his attacker was located and this time manage to bounce off the body of the female Sound ninja. It wasn't solid enough to do any damage but it did show that he was getting better at locating his foe at the point the attack began to land. He felt confident that the next time Toshiko did something, he'd land a direct hit and successfully remove her from the fight.

"Well aren't you the gutsy little Genin!" Came Toshiko's voice from no discernable direction, "Letting yourself get cut on purpose just on the off chance that you might be figure out where I am based on the angle of the blade, the depth of the cut and where a ninja would have to be to make the cut that way. A little ambitious but then the Uchiha clan did have a habit of being cocky little assholes. Still, I'm game if you are. It'll be interesting to see how long you can last before bleeding to death!"

With those words the rate at which she attacked him increased to the point where he barely had enough time to re-establish his stance before she attacked him again. It had turned into a situation where he had to hit her and end the fight between them in the same move or else he wouldn't survive past three minutes. The more cuts she made to his body, the faster his blood would come out and the less time he had before he kicked the bucket for good. Sadly his impending doom caused him to rush his attacks and eventually he failed to get back into the proper stance in time, resulting in a rather painful crash to the ground. He tried his best to get back to his feet but the pain and the growing feeling of weakness in his body made getting to one knee the best he could do in one go. Breathing was becoming more rapid, one breath not being sufficient to draw in the air he needed, and with every breath he took his heart pumped faster, hastening the time of his death.

"Well it looks like you're about done Uchiha. Can't stand, lost almost a third of your blood and haven't come close to actually hitting me." Toshiko declared cockily with no real difference in the sound of her voice to give him a location, "It's been fun but it, like your life, is about to come to an end!"

From then on there was silence and his mind whirred just a few steps shy of desperately trying to figure out from which direction the bitch would attempt to deliver the final blow. This was all he could do! Without the ability to see or hear his opponent coming he was reduced to remembering how Toshiko had moved and fought before in order to anticipate how she'd move now. He was on the verge of losing his ninja composure when he felt… something… touch his mind. It was an odd feeling and for a moment he feared that this might be the Sound Kunoichi's final move. However she had never before displayed any sign of mental abilities so perhaps it was something else entirely. Not exactly a good thing but not bad either.

_Look out! Above you!_

In the blink of an eye he responded to the warning and put all he had into a rising uppercut that would have won the respect of any Street Fighter character, especially the three known for the move. Whether it was the mere fact that he'd been on a hair trigger to begin with or because of the sense of somehow **knowing** the voice that spoke inside of his mind, he didn't know. Whatever the case might have been, it proved the value of listening to others if you didn't have a clue how to win on your own when he felt his fist connect nicely with the jaw of someone coming at him from above. The contact between fist and jaw lasted for about two or three seconds before he began to drop back down to the ground and she began to fall away **and** to the ground. His landing was pathetic and it was only through sheer willpower that he managed to remain standing but it was anyone's guess how long it'd stay that way.

Almost immediately the mist around him began to lift, indicating that his plan was working. With one of their number down, the two that remained only had two choices: keep both their jutsu's going or sacrifice one so that the attack upon him could continue. If they kept both their jutsu's going then they risked giving him time to recover, since there was no telling how soon Toshiko would regain consciousness. Even if he was only given time to bandage his wounds using what little he had, there was also the chance that the invasion would spill over into their battlefield ruining things for them. They were on a mission for Orochimaru after all and they could hardly carry it out if others got into the middle of it all and interfered. By taking the second option, they at least gave him a chance to turn things around since they would either have to let him see one of them coming or hear one of them coming. With his ability to see them once more available, he could now make an attempt at ending this confrontation before he passed out from blood loss. After all, with one maintaining her technique, that left only one to fight him and a one on one battle he knew he could win no problem. Then, when one down became two down, there'd only be one remaining and he just might have enough strength left to make that happen before his strength left him.

It was then he realized he'd tempted the Harris Luck by thinking optimistically about his chances.

Then the other proverbial shoe dropped when sounds once more began to fill the air, indicating that the other Sound Kunoichi had ceased using her jutsu as well. Despite how it restored his sense of hearing to him, it was not a good thing because it meant that his one on one match had just become a two on one handicap match.

SO not of the good!

"You are certainly full of surprises, Uchiha. I don't know how you managed to figure out where Toshiko was going to attack from but it's the last blow you'll land against us." Tomiko said with superiority laced with a bit of anger.

"Indeed. While you may have managed a few surprises, you are in a sorry state indeed and I have no doubt that Orochimaru-sama would say that you failed this test." Tomoko stated as she walked to a position opposite the one her comrade was on, "Now suffer the fate of all ninja who put their lives on the line and fail!"

With those words he watched both of them begin to form hand seal after hand seal and, while he was not familiar with the combination, he was fairly certain that the more seals that went into a jutsu, the more devastating it usually was. He tried to move towards one of them in the hopes that he could take one of them down while their hands were occupied with forming seals, but it only took one step to let him know that crossing the distance between where he was and where he wanted to go was impossible. It was taking all his willpower just to remain standing and taking that one step had almost send him tumbling to the ground as the strength in his legs seemed to fall apart for a moment before he forced it back into place. He was not delusional enough to think that he could take the ten or more steps necessary to make it to either Tomiko or Tomoko. That left either a genjutsu or a ninjutsu as a possible means of survival and perhaps victory. This was discarded, though, as he doubted that he could muster the energy to perform a satisfactory technique before the Sound duo executed their own techniques.

In the end this seemed to be where his story came to an end and, quite frankly, he found it pathetic. If he had to choose a way for his life to end, it would be to die in a meaningful manner that would restore his Clan to its proper place in the world of the ninja. Whether it was of old age after a long life of honorable deeds or in one heroic battle where he sacrificed all for those things in life that he truly cared about, it didn't matter. Now, though, it looked as though he would die as merely a promising young Genin whose life was snuffed out before his full potential could be reached. He wanted to defy this fate, to fight for something better, but no matter where he looked there seemed to be no hope to be found.

_There is still a way for you to wi,n Uchiha Alexander. That is, if you are willing to pay a price._

The voice, the one that had warned him of Toshiko's attack, had returned but now he had to wonder if it was from a real person who just a product of his ever growing blood loss. The feeling of familiarity, the feeling that he should know this man somehow, was still there but he was no closer to putting a name to the voice than before. He wondered if he should accept the voice's aid and in this he was divided. On the one hand it had successfully helped avoid death once so perhaps it could do so again. On the other hand, his experience on the Hellmouth warned him that such favors often came at a high price and evil beings rarely informed their victims of that cost beforehand. In the end, though, he knew he had little choice and, with the lives of his team on the line, he knew what he had to do.

_Do what you must but help me save my friends. Help me save Konoha. _He thought as he watched the rate at which the Sound Kunoichi form seals come to an end.

_Then let us be as one._

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_**The Intersection of Battle, Konoha, Two Seconds Later, Tomiko's P.O.V**_

_Time to die, Uchiha!_ Tomiko thought as she prepared to execute the sonic scream attack just like Tomoko was.

It was a method that she had used with her sister many times to dispatch a particularly difficult opponent, although this would be the first time they'd bothered to use this tactic to kill a foe who looked dead on his feet already. The technique took the form of disruptive sonics that caused all matter that they came into contact with to vibrate at different rates, eventually causing a target to be torn to pieces in the process. By using the technique from two opposite directions, the damage would be multiplied many times and would cause the troublesome Genin to explode and cause bloody bits of flesh to decorate all within range.

It would be GLORIOUS!!

However, just as she was about to open her mouth to unleash the attack, she saw a dark black chakra field begin to surround the Uchiha and this made her pause for a second. While not as experienced as some Sound ninja, she still considered herself to be fairly knowledgeable about the ninja arts and that knowledge told her that chakra was not supposed to be black. Concerned that the Uchiha might be trying something unusual, she immediately opened her mouth and pushed more chakra into the technique than she'd intended. Through pure chance Tomoko did the same thing, resulting in their two attacks coming together with virtually no difference between the two but that was about all she could say went as planned. Instead of seeing the body of her prey shudder violently before exploding, Uchiha Alexander vanished into thin air between the blink of her eyes. She immediately ceased using the sonic scream technique and looked about to try and reacquire her team's target, believing he couldn't have gotten far using whatever technique he'd used. She'd seen the damage Toshiko had done to him and knew that even without their help he'd likely die of blood loss soon enough.

She was about to ask Tomoko if she could see where the bastard went but before she could say anything, pain streaked across her throat and instantly she knew that her throat had been sliced open. Clutching it more out of reflex that any real belief that she could stave off death by doing so, the last sight to register in her mind was that of the Uchiha appearing behind her sister as if by teleportation before using the kunai he had to slit her sibling's throat as well. As her thoughts began to follow the world by fading out of existence she could not help but be amazed at what the Genin had just done.

He'd just disappeared…

…and reappeared…

…in a…flash.

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_**The Streets of Konoha, Twenty Minutes Later, Jiraya's P.O.V**_

_What is this?_ Jiraya asked as he looked down from a rooftop at the scene of over eight Sound ninja dead on the street below him.

If this had been the only such scene, he would have merely discounted it as being the work of an enthusiastic Chuunin or Jounin looking to make a name for him/herself. He knew that at the moment the village was still finishing up stage two, which involved moving the civilian population of Konoha to secure bunkers while a skeleton defense force kept the invaders occupied. By his estimation, the signal should be only minutes away from being given but, before that happened, he wanted to find the person or persons responsible for seven scenes just like this one. After he'd taken out that three headed summoned snake, Ibiki had divided the Konoha troops present and gone off to make sure that the difficulty the Sand and Sound ninja met with remained where it needed to be. If it was too easy for them, it might inspire them to hasten their destruction of the village. If they made it too hard, though, it might cause them to resort to more widespread and destructive attack methods. The last thing they needed was some sort of ambitious Konoha shinobi upsetting the timing and balance of things.

Looking about the area in front of him, he tried to discern who might have emerged victorious here. Part of being a ninja was being able to see beyond the normal, both in terms of tactics and analyzing any suspicious environments they came upon. Enemy ninja were trained to be able to hide traps very well and sometimes it was the most innocent of discrepancies that could tip you off to what they'd done. Based on what he could see right now, he could tell that the enemy ninja hadn't had any warning of their attacker/s and the last few had only been able to put up a token defense before being taken down. Such an act would not be possible if it had been a large group making the attack, so at best there might have been two or three Konoha shinobi involved. Also, given the lack of damage to the environment, there couldn't have been that many ninjutsu used by either side, implying either genjutsu or taijutsu was the method of choice. It was then, though, that he noticed that the majority of the ninja died from a single strike to a vital organ or major artery, implying the ones responsible chose efficiency as well as expediency over showmanship.

There was also something truly familiar about the wounds and, as he looked at each one, he could almost see a pattern to them, an order to the way they were killed, that reminded him of a battle past.

"Jiraya-sama? What do you think happened here?" Asked one of the Chuunin Ibiki had assigned to him.

"I'm not sure but we'll have to be quick if we want to find out the truth." He replied, not wanting to voice any theories he had before he had some proof to back them up.

Not bothering to say anything to those with him, he immediately leapt up to the highest point in the area and cast a focused gaze on the surrounding area. None of the attacks had happened too far from one another, all involved either Sound or Sand groups that were closest to one another, so if he kept a watchful eye out, he should be able to spot the next fight instantly. With eyes remaining open for as long as possible, he watched the area of the village he was in looking specifically for signs of a quick surgical strike. They would be slight signs, if any, but he trusted his eyes and his mind. They would not fail to alert him to the location of the mysterious ninja or shinobi responsible for the attacks he'd seen after the fact. The question then became what would he do when he found the person or people he sought. Strikes like these weren't things that could be done by just any ninja but nothing he quite matched up against those ninja he knew were in Konoha at the moment. Nevertheless, he couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity and it only made him all the more eager to find the answer to the mystery he'd stumbled across.

BOOM!

Looking immediately, he saw smoke rising from an area nearby area not more than ten blocks from his current location. For a moment he thought that it might just be more Sound or Sand shinobi causing destruction with their invasion but it was at least worth checking out, thus as speedily as he could manage, he crossed the distance between his lookout spot and the source of the explosion.

What he found when he arrived shocked him.

Moving from enemy ninja to enemy ninja at such speeds so as to almost seem like teleportation was a young man no more than sixteen or seventeen years of age, but he was moving and killing like a special Jounin of many years. The movements, the technique, though, were instantly recognizable to him but his mind could not understand how it was possible for this Genin or Chuunin to know the movements of a dead man so well.

It was fortunate then that the youngster had finished off the last of the invading ninja about then because he had a great deal of questions to ask the kid. Leaping down to a spot that was close enough to force a taijutsu fight but far enough away to evade just about anything, he looked into the eyes of the young man only to be disturbed by what he saw. The eyes were not those of a healthy person but the milky white ones of a corpse that were quite old indeed but, nevertheless, he knew without a doubt that the ninja in front of him could see just fine. Another odd thing was the feeling of the chakra he could sense from the Konoha shinobi in front of him. It was not the normal chakra but rather something… colder, more unsettling to feel, and he didn't like it one little bit.

"You fight well. What's your name?" He asked neutrally as he prepared to measure both what was spoken as well as what was done next.

"Thank you for the compliment, but I've always just followed your masterful example," spoke the young man with an odd echo of a second different voice beneath dominant one. "Still, I couldn't quite do it perfectly with this body. The young man has done well to condition his body but it still has much room for improvement."

_This body? That would imply that someone else is using this kid's body._ He thought as he dissected the words spoken by the person in front of him, _He also said that he was using me as an example. Does this possessor know me? Do I know him?_

All of a sudden, just as he was about to ask another question, the kid in front of him cringed in pain and grasped his stomach tightly. He managed to repress the urge to aid the young man after taking only one step, wary of a trap of some kind, but when another worse bout of pain followed the first, he became seriously worried. It bore some resemblance to how a ninja would react to chakra exhaustion or overuse but looked much more severe. He'd almost say that it looked like the young man had channeled more chakra through his body then it was currently capable of handling without injury. Then it took an even worse turn as the pain reached a level that brought the young man to his knees with a barely choked off exclamation of pain.

This time he didn't hesitate to go to the young man's aide by assuming the burden of half the kid's weight to ease the burden a little.

"What's wrong?! Are you hurt?" He asked as he began to use what medical training he picked up from Tsunade-hime to diagnose what was wrong.

"I-it would seem… that I've r-reached the limit… of how long I can remain in this Uchiha's body." Spoke the young man and the possessor with the echo being less in synch with the dominant voice, "I must… leave or risk… doing him permanent harm. It w-was good… to see you… again… Jiraya-sensei. T-take care o-of my son… and t-this Uchiha. They… they are the future…"

So shocked was he as the facts fell into place that he almost dropped the kid in his arms but he quickly tightened his grip. He knew who it was now, he knew who had acted in defense of Konoha! He knew who now spoke using this young man's body! For a moment he wished he knew the correct technique to keep his prized pupil here on this plane of existence for just a little while longer. There was so much he wanted to say, so much he wanted to say he was sorry about, but as the unpleasant chakra faded into nothingness he knew that his chance had slipped through his fingers.

Still… he would honor the request of his finest student.

Picking up the now unconscious Uchiha kid, he took to the rooftops heading for where the medical-nins and hospital patients had been relocated to the instant the invasion began. They would be able to care for the young man and heal whatever needed healing. With luck, once the ninja in his arms woke up he could get some answers as to how this happened and if it could be made to happen again. He knew he was behaving selfishly but the chance to rid himself of past regrets was just too much for him to resist.

_No sense getting ahead of myself, though._ He thought as he did his best to go around battles, _This Uchiha has to survive first._

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_**One Day Later, Konoha Hospital Afternoon, Anko's P.O.V**_

_At times like this I wonder if it wouldn't be better if Xander-kun stayed asleep a while longer._ Anko thought as she strolled down the hallway to where her Uchiha student's room was, _If nothing else it'd give me time to figure out how to tell him what happened during the invasion._

While it was true that, officially, the invasion had been over for about a day already, the village had been hit and it had been hit hard. A gaping hole in the wall from the summoned snake, fires and damaged buildings everywhere and… the death of the Third Hokage rounded out the more major remnants of attack. The only good thing she could say was that the casualty list was shorter than some might have figured it'd be, considering they'd had ninja from both Sound and Sand attacking them at the same time. Some of that she knew that they had Jiraya-sama to thank for but if the Toad Sage was telling the truth, then the village also owed Xander as well. The student of the Third hadn't been overly forthcoming on the details of **how** the Uchiha had done this but she had a clue that was worrying her. While her view of his fight with the Sound bitches had been blocked by Ayeka's ass, her ability to sense chakra had to be affected by the powder and what she had been able to see had told her enough. She'd seen her student's moves when he'd been on the rooftop or simply up in the air and had been proud of the strategies he'd used. When the two of the three sluts had executed their techniques, though, she'd been completely cut off from the fight, leaving her with nothing but how Alexander fought along with how one might handle this sort of battle.

Her predictions hadn't been the best.

Nevertheless, when the wall of black smoke lifted, it had been with mixed reactions that she waited to see if the development was good or bad.

The feeling her chakra sensing abilities were conveying to her unnerved her like few things she'd ever experienced in life. An unusual form of chakra seemed to be wrapping itself around the signal that the Uchiha normally put out and, once it seemed to finish its task, it climbed in strength dramatically. In less than ten seconds she heard two bodies drop to the ground and prayed that one of them wasn't that of her newest pupil. Her prayers had been answered moments later when she saw an injured but standing Uchiha Alexander walk up to Ayeka to stand over the rest of Team Anko lay on the ground. A mental smile almost fully formed but it was then that she saw his eyes and was shocked to the core of her being. His eyes were not the normal brown that she'd grown used to or the scarlet kind when the kid activated his clan's kekkai genkai, but rather the milky eyes she'd seen in corpses that littered many a battlefield in the ninja world. She'd been worried that this might have been a hidden surprise in the Cursed Seal that Orochimaru had forced upon the American but, as she watched the strangely affected Genin lift up Ayeka with true kindness, her worry began to disperse. One by one he lifted each of them and placed them inside a nearby shop before leaving them, locking the door and, as she and the others found out later, he'd used a sealing jutsu on the door that could only be undone from the inside.

It hadn't been until hours later, when the paralytic effects of the powder faded enough for them to move, that they'd been able to leave the shop. Sadly it had been too late to do anything with regards to the invasion, for it was pretty much over with by the time they'd been regained control over their own bodies.

The fact that the list of dead Konoha ninja was short was small comfort when the first thing they saw upon exiting the shop was trails of smoke rising into the sky and demolished buildings scattered throughout the range of their eyesight. At that moment in time, all they knew was that while they had been helpless, their village had been seriously damaged and there was no way of knowing who was dead or who was alive. It had only been later, when they'd met up with a team of patrolling ANBU, that they'd been told the important facts that they hadn't known before. The invasion had been the doing of Orochimaru and the Snake Sannin had manipulated the Hidden Village of Sand into it. The invasion had been successfully repelled and the losses had been minimal. However, one among the lost was none other than the Third Hokage himself, who had died fighting his evil, former pupil. It had floored all of them and reminded her personally of the talk she'd had with Hokage-sama not long after the preliminary matches had concluded. Sarutobi had doubted that even he would be able to match his former pupil in a fight and so it had been proven true in a truly tragic way. She'd asked the ANBU if there had been any word about Uchiha Alexander and one of them said that he thought he'd heard that Jiraya had taken him to the medical-nins.

She, Hana and Ayeka had made for the hospital immediately in order to find out the status of their injured teammate.

When they'd found the room Xander was in, they'd been fortunate in that there had been a medical-nin present who could give answers. According to the woman, the young man had numerous lacerations all over his body but almost half of them appeared to have been healed at an accelerated pace by something. Ayeka had asked if it'd been some sort of healing ninjutsu and the nurse had thought it possible but had stated that there'd been something odd about the wounds that bothered her. Another thing that had been discovered was some damage to the Uchiha's nervous system that, while not serious, was something could be a problem if it happened too many times in the future. She'd made a mental note of it, believing that the damage was somehow connected to the weird chakra she'd sensed near the end of the fight with the Sound bitches. If she ever felt him using such chakra in the future, she'd put a stop to it immediately if he had conscious control over it. If he couldn't shut it down willingly, then she'd have to figure something else out. There was no way she was going to let him purposefully or accidently kill himself with that weird chakra while there was something she could do about it.

Her injured pupil had slept clean through the night and had only woken up soon after sunrise that morning. Fortunately she'd been the one watching over him at the time, since both Ayeka and Hana had been sent home by her to get some rest as well as check up on their families. He had been confused about how he'd gotten into the hospital bed or what had happened with the Sound kunoichi, therefore she had taken it upon herself to fill in the blanks for him.

She omitted a few things from the retelling, though, until she had enough information to do more than loosely speculate. There was no need to tell him about the weird chakra or his activities under its influence until she had no other choice.

It had been the news of the Third Hokage's death, though, that had hit the young man hardest and she could understand why. It had been the Third who had given the American Uchiha a chance when some of the more… cold members of the village council would have painted Xan-kun with the same brush as his mother Jun'ko. A fresh chance to someone who otherwise might have been treated like shit was worth more than all the gold in the country of Fire. To hear that the person who'd given him that chance was dead would no doubt grieve the young one, since it would be impossible now for Xander to show the old man that he'd made the most of that chance. The rest of the news she had to tell him, that the casualties had been low, barely registered even though she could tell that he was glad that Konoha's losses hadn't been as great as they could have been.

Hana and Ayeka had shown up about two hours ago so she'd allowed them to have their time with their teammate alone. She'd had her own report to file on what happened with her team during the invasion, as well as find out what the higher ups would want the four of them to do once Xander was back on his feet. The report hadn't taken long and, according to those at HQ, all missions would wait until after the village funeral, which suited her just fine. It'd give her students time to come to terms with everything that happened and get their heads screwed on straight. It'd be foolish to send any Konoha shinobi out when their minds were a complete mess from the invasion. With her two bits of business for the day handled, she was now on her way back to check on her students and hoped that the three of them hadn't caused the hospital staff too much trouble in her absence. She believed, for the most part, that they'd have the sense not to make trouble for the other villagers given all that had happened but there was always the off chance they'd do something reckless.

Upon entering Xander's hospital room, though, she was surprised to see them sitting on either side of the bed, comparing notes with one another about what they'd learned about the invasion and how they thought the people in charge would handle the aftermath.

"We didn't lose as many ninja as we could have but, from what I heard, Konoha's still going to be stretched a bit making sure none of the other countries catch on to how badly we were hit." Hana said while petting one of her dogs, "As for the village itself, it'll need some serious reconstruction and a couple coats of paint but it should all be back together by this fall."

"The real problem is the death of the Third Hokage." Ayeka stated with concern as she looked out the window, "As Konoha's strongest ninja and leader, he was a big reason why other countries wouldn't dare attack us without serious planning. When they find out that he's dead, some of the more ambitious ones will probably test our borders to see what we'll do. That's why they'll need to appoint a new one soon to not give anyone a chance to take advantage of things."

All three of them fell silent at this statement, feeling a little ashamed at already thinking about replacing the Old Man not twenty-four hours after he'd died. Nevertheless, she could understand why their thoughts went in that direction because her own mind had done so at least twice so far today. Growing up in a ninja village, going to the academy, it wasn't hard to gain a basic understanding of how things worked both on a political level as well as a personal level. They knew that the strength of the hidden villages played a major role in determining whether or not a feudal lord or kage would take action against another country. With leadership of Konoha in limbo, co-ordinating patrols, missions and the like would be difficult, even if the village council took charge immediately. Without a clear leader possessing power equal to the other kages, they would never be at full strength and thus have a vulnerable spot that could be exploited.

"Do you think they've got anyone in mind?" Xander asked, breaking the quiet mood with an excellent question.

"They'd have to be S-Rank or Jounin level Konoha Shinobi to fit the bill, plus having a solid reputation could only be a good thing." Hana said taking a moment to think things through, "They'll probably try Third's students, Jiraya and Tsunade, first. If that doesn't work out then maybe Copy Ninja Kakashi, since he was taught by the Fourth."

"Yeah. Name recognition and ties to others with bigger reputations would definitely be in their best interests." Aykea agreed, nodding returning her eyes to her teammates.

"Hopefully they won't pick some kind of yes man that'll only listen to that old hag." Xander said with anger simmering below the surface, "If they appoint someone like that Hokage then I might just give up being a ninja and go back to America."

"Hopefully it won't come to that." She said while secretly considering her options if his fear came to pass.

It was no secret that she wasn't the most respectful of those who led the village and only a few, like the Third, actually got her respect in full. If Old Man's former teammates put a ninja in charge who they could easily manipulate or had a mindset similar to their own, then life in Konoha would seriously change and not for the better. It was no secret that the Old Hag believed in the well being of the whole over the survival of a single individual and her partner was a little too chummy with that warhawk, Danzo. If they were allowed to dictate policy and protocol, then the village would undoubtedly become more militaristic in nature with the more peace centered methods reduced to last resorts rather than first choices. Such a village would not be the sort she'd want to live in anymore and she might just do as Xander threatened to do if the Old Bag had her way. Some might accuse her of being disloyal to Konoha if she left but, in her mind, if the village became more military centered, it'd only be a matter of time before another Great Ninja War was brought into being. Whether it was because of expansionist agendas or old hatreds, the trio of Koharu, Homura and Danzo would likely light the fuse that set it off. They'd lived in a time of war, fought in a time of war, and so the ways of running a village during wartimes was what they were both used to and perhaps preferred. Only a fool, though, desired to live in perpetual wartime or needlessly antagonized ones neighbors out of greed and ambition.

War should only be an option when the alternatives are that much worse than going to war.

They had enjoyed so many years of peace that she would not support any actions that would shatter it without a damn good reason.

"The funeral is going to be tomorrow. I suggest we let Xander get as much rest as he can." She said knowing that the boy still had to be hurting from his injuries, "I'll bring you the right set of clothes tomorrow, Xander, so you can attend."

"I'll be here." Xander replied with a look of sadness at the event that would happen in twenty-four hours.

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	17. Recover, Revenge and Repeat

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their creators and associated companies. I make no profit off of this whatsoever. I write only for my own amusement and the enjoyment that fanfic readers get from reading my work.

Note: I know that a lot of you have questions about what happened last chapter. All I will say at this point is look to chapter 2 of this fanfic for your first clue.

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_**The Front Gates of Konoha Hospital, The Next Day, Late Morning, Hana's P.O.V**_

_Looks like the weather is mirroring the mood of just about everyone in the village._ Inuzuka Hana thought as she looked at the dark clouds hanging in the sky overhead, _I gotta say I like it this way myself. Cheery sunshine just wouldn't be right for a funeral._

Looking over at Ayeka, she could tell that her blonde teammate would not be all that cheery today either and wouldn't be up to her usual 'get Xander-sama to marry me' tricks. Even with the Mishima girl's desire to elevate her status by becoming a member of one of the higher ranked ninja clans, she wouldn't mix that with the solemn funeral to come. Those that had died had given up their lives in defense of the village and the Third had managed to send his former pupil packing as well, even though it cost him his life. No one would dare to dishonor those sacrifices. No honorable member of the village would permit it. She'd beat the crap out of the first person who chose to speak ill of the dead and then it'd be whoever was next in line who'd continue the punishment.

Hearing the doors to the front of the Hospital, she saw both Anko-sensei and Wannabe coming out with the both of them clad in standard funeral clothes for the ninja of this region. Most of the wounds the Uchiha had gotten from the fight two days ago had either finished healing or had been bandaged up perfectly. She could still see little signs of fatigue or soreness but she knew they'd be gone soon enough. Based on what she'd heard from the docs, he'd gotten off seriously lucky fighting those Sound sluts and hadn't gotten wounded any worse than one would get from a hardcore training session with all combatants going all out. It'd still be another day or two before he'd be back in top form but she doubted that'd be a problem unless some other nation close to the Country of Fire decided to make trouble. Even then the bigwigs probably wouldn't send out a team of Genins unless they absolutely had to because, no matter how much some of them might dislike Team Anko, they couldn't justify sending them out on a 'just because' reason.

"You ready for this, Wannabe?" she asked as her teacher and teammate finally reached her position.

"As ready as anyone can be for something like this." Xander replied, looking about as somber as the sky above.

"Then let's get going. It'll be starting soon." Anko-sensei said before leading the way towards Hokage Tower where the funeral would be held.

As they walked down the street towards their destination, she noticed other villagers moving down parallel roads while others fell in behind them. Some she recognized, like Team Kakashi, while others she only had passing knowledge of that didn't extend much past they lived in Konoha and she'd seen them before. None of them had a happy face on and some looked like they'd been crying not too long ago and had only minutes ago dried the tears. This came as little surprise since, despite the hardships the village had been through, everyone respected, revered and loved the Third with all their heart and soul. To lose him, along with some of their best Jounin, was enough to shake anyone up and bring them to tears. Some, though, like herself, didn't cry but rather spent their time training so that sad stuff like this couldn't happen again or got all broody like the Hyuuga. Tears didn't accomplish anything as far as she was concerned. Training, on the other hand, would make you stronger so that when something bad was on the verge of happening again, you'd be more than ready to deal with it. As for the brooders… well at least if they were brooding someplace they wouldn't be getting in her way.

Arriving at Hokage Tower, they walked up the steps and moved to where their team was assigned to stand alongside the other Genin teams. Team Gai, Team Kurenai, Team Asuma and Team Kakashi all stood in perfect order alongside them, with their eyes facing the pictures of the special honored dead at the far end of the rooftop. Already she could see the Old Fart and the Old Hag, otherwise known as Councilors Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, standing on the area reserved for speakers as well as the flowers that would soon be laid down to honor the dead. While she hadn't had as many interactions with the senile seniors as other ninja, she knew right from the first time they'd met that she would never like them, **EVER**. They were obsolete fossils, remnants of an age long past when there was war between the countries of this region. All those two were capable of were promoting the same feelings and beliefs that were common during wartimes.

Konoha would be better off without them.

She was waiting for the speech to begin, the one where one of the senile seniors would talk about how much poorer Konoha would be now, when rain began to fall from the sky. Growling a bit at this development, she heard Sarutobi Asuma remark about how even the sky was mourning the loss of the Third. She thought it was a bit dramatic to say something like that but, at the same time, it was oddly appropriate.

"The funeral for the Third Hokage, who lost his life in this battle as well as the other victims who gave their lives, will begin now." Homura said loudly enough so those on the roof could hear.

With those words, one after one of those on the roof approached the picture of Old Man Hokage and laid a flower in front of it before saying a short prayer and then moving on. It was about three minutes before Team Anko got their chance to lay flowers and, when she prayed, she almost made a promise to her very soul. She would work harder than ever before to keep those she cared about alive and help them become strong as well so that times like these would happen once in a blue moon. Walking away with the rest, she paused for a moment to look over her shoulder and saw Xander looking at the Third's picture with such intensity that she knew he was making a serious promise all his own. Considering how seriously he took his promises to dead people, she didn't have any doubt that he'd make good on his vow, no matter what it took to do it.

After they'd set down their flowers, the four of them left the tower since it wasn't, strictly speaking, necessary for them to stay past that. They'd paid their respects and so they didn't need to do more unless they wanted to. Her mother wanted her back at home to help handle the mess that the invasion had made of the place and track down any of the animals that might have gotten free. Ayeka had been 'persuaded' to help her mother out and Xander was heading back to the apartment he shared with Kurenai and Anko. As for Anko-sensei, the Jounin said she'd be busy with meetings and official business for most of the day as the bigwigs tried to figure out how best to deal with the current situation. The look on the purple-haired kunoichi's face said that she wasn't looking forward to the bureaucracy that she'd have to immerse herself in.

_Still, better her than me!_ She thought as she privately dreaded the day when she was ranked highly enough to be forced to endure boring meetings and endless stacks of paperwork.

With that in mind, she parted ways with the others and began to make her way back home to the work that awaited her. With a little bit of luck, she'd finish in time to take a spin by her favorite bar for a bit of sake.

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_**Two Weeks Later, The Wall Surrounding Konoha, Late Morning, Uchiha Itachi's P.O.V**_

"They were able to avoid complete destruction, but it looks like they still sustained quite a bit of damage." Kisame said to his right as the two of them looked down upon the village of Konoha.

"The village that prospered like no other has become pitiful." He commented, adding his own opinion of the sight before the two of them.

"That's out of character for you." Kisame said with no real emotion, "So even a person like you has an attachment to his home village?"

"No. I don't." he replied just as he always did for the past five years.

Still, he would admit, if only in the privacy of his own head, that there was one thing about this village that he had some interest in that didn't involve their mission.

He had heard during the last meeting that one of their spies in Orochimaru's organization had overheard the arrival of a new Uchiha in Konoha name Alexander. This newcomer was the son of one Uchiha Jun'ko and, while he had been aware of his existence before, it had been thought unlikely by him that his relation would leave America for Konoha. The others of his group of S Class criminals had made note of this development as well as how Orochimaru would react, but otherwise were not overly concerned. The previously unknown Uchiha was said to be no more than seventeen years old and had apparently lived his entire life in America with no signs of ninja training until this past year. No one, even from the Uchiha clan, could acquire skills that could be a threat to them in so short a period of time. Nevertheless, he personally wondered what this new Uchiha was like and would be… gratified if, by some chance, he encountered Alexander during the mission to acquire the container of Kyuubi. He would then take the young man's measure and compare him to his memories of his little brother Sasuke to see who was stronger. Had his sibling grown strong these past five years or was he so weak that someone with only a year of training could be the better ninja of the two?

_Whatever the case might be, it does not matter. _He thought dispersing the thoughts and once more becoming the embodiment of the mission, _All that matters is the goal. Nothing else._

"Come." He said before using his speed to drop from the wall to the floor below.

Their mission required that they didn't call attention to themselves so lingering in one place too long needed to be avoided to not arouse suspicion. Still, they should be able to at least stop by his favorite tea shop to see if its products were still as he remembered them to be.

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_**The Front Gates of Konoha, Ten Minutes Later, Ayeka's P.O.V**_

"So who wants to do the report for the mission?" Anko-sensei asked looking at them from their place just inside the front gates of Konoha.

"Not it!" Ayeka, Hana and Xander replied instantly as well as at the same time.

This brought a look of shock to the face of Anko-sensei but it quickly turned to one of annoyed resignation since the Jounin no doubt realized that she'd just been saddled with the job of doing the report now. It was something that they'd discussed with Xander-sama last night because both she and Hana had a feeling that Anko-sensei might try to push it on one of them once they returned home. It was something she and dog girl had picked up on since they'd been assigned to the older woman after graduating from the Academy. Whenever there was a big enough development in either the team or the village, the dango-loving woman always made an attempt to make a change that benefitted her. It varied from time to time but the most common of the lot was, without a doubt, trying to dump the paperwork onto one of them so she wouldn't have to do it. Paperwork, the bureaucracy and the rest bothered the former pupil of Orochimaru like few things could. Nevertheless, that didn't mean that any of them planned to make that burden their own just to make Anko's job easier.

Not one of them liked paperwork, either.

"Aaahhhhh! Fine! I'll do it, you bunch of traitors!" Anko-sensei said before stomping off in a huff that she'd no doubt make them pay for their words later.

With their Jounin teacher gone, it was just the three of them and she knew what she wanted to do with what free time she now had. It had been weeks and weeks since Xander-sama had been made a part of her team but, up until now, she'd been content with showing him what she had to offer as a girlfriend or potential wife. Now, though, it was time to take it to the next level and actually go out on a date with him so that they could get to know one another better. After all, while a pretty face and a hot body might be the first thing to draw a guy in, it took something more to keep him around for something more than a one night stand. Now it was time for him to know that, in mind as well as in soul, she was the perfect woman for him and that he need look no further for companionship. She knew that he wouldn't take the first step so that meant she had to be the one to get the ball rolling on this one.

"So, Xander-sama, do you have any plans for the rest of the day?" She asked, trying to sound casual and non-threatening way.

"Well, since we don't have another mission to perform any time soon, I figured I'd try to get some training in." Xander replied turning to face her fully, "We might have come through this mission alright but I still need to get better. If that mess with the Sound Kunoichi taught me anything, its that I still got a lot to learn."

Okay, she had her answer, so now it was time to turn it to her advantage so she could get what she wanted in the end.

"Maybe I can help you with that. With my projectile skills, I can attack silently and without warning." She offered, pointing out the advantages of having her join him, "Not as good as a technique that blinds you and makes you deaf, but it should help with your evasion skills."

"I'll help out, too. If Golden Girl here is the only one that goes with you, she'll just try an' play tonsil hockey with you non-stop." Hana said with a resolute look on her face, "Even if I can't do sneaky like she can, I'll at least be of some good by keeping the training on track."

_NO! If she comes along then I'll just have to work to get rid of her later! _She thought as she decided to make use of one of the secret plans.

Before they'd left on their mission she'd spoken with one of the people who worked with Hana's mother in taking care of the animals. She didn't try to dazzle him with her good looks or mislead him with false promises but rather offered him one month of mission money to wait around the front gates of the village around the time she felt they'd be back from the mission. He had been told that when he saw her use a certain hand signal, that he rush up and tell Dog Girl that she was needed back at home to help with some sort of crisis. He was told to make it legitimate sounding as well as something that the Inuzuka girl would believe enough to actually leave without suspecting something. Keeping her hand concealed, she performed the hand signal perfectly and then waited hoping that the guy she'd hired really was waiting where they'd agreed. If he'd decided to double cross her for some reason, she'd have to think of something on the fly to deal with Ms. Mutt Face.

"Hana-dono! Hana-dono!" Came the voice of the man she'd hired, right on schedule.

"Batou? What's wrong?" Hana asked as a man clad in clothes typical of animal care ninja ran up to them.

"It's the deer in the southern pen! They've gotten sick somehow!" Batou replied with great concern both in his voice and on his face, "Tsume-sama asked me to come get you as soon as you got back from your mission!"

"Damn! They must've got into some tainted bushes left over from the invasion!" Hana growled before turning back to her teammates, "Looks like I'll have to trust you two to keep your minds on the training! See Ya!"

She almost let her victorious smile come to the surface but kept it to a more neutral grin so as to make certain that her teammates wouldn't suspect anything. Still, she would have to work quickly if she was to make the most of this opportunity. She'd have to suggest one of the lesser used training grounds so, once Hana figured out what was going on, it'd still take Dog Girl some time to arrive at their location, time enough to secure a date with the young Uchiha because she knew that, once Xander-sama promised to do something, it got done. So, if she got him to promise to take her out on a date after their training session, then he'd do it and then the first step on her path to his bed would be done. From there it'd be like a pebble causing a rockslide and, with a little bit of luck, in a year or two she'd officially be his wife. She'd be called Uchiha Ayeka and finally be a part of a noble family of Konoha. True, that clan currently numbered two but there was still an entire district in the Uchiha's name and, from her own inquiries, the victims of the massacre had quite a few bank accounts that added up to a hefty sum of money when added together. More than enough when split up between the three of them so that they could each live the sort of life they desired to live. Sure, she'd probably have to have a few of his kids, since as the head of the clan he'd be obligated to restoring it both financially as well as biologically, but she'd just have to make sure she had a good life before then.

_No way am I going to be one of those young mothers whose looks go right down the crapper after their first kid or two._ She thought as she turned to see what her future husband would do next, _I'm going to live it up as Lady Uchiha for a good ten years or so before I let myself get pregnant._

"Well I guess that settles that." Xander-sama said with a shake of his head, "I need to stop back at my room to pick up a few things. I'll meet you at the training ground in, say, thirty minutes or so?"

"Sure! Training ground thirteen?" She proposed, secretly glad that she'd have some time to tweak her plans a bit to fit the new circumstances.

"I'll be there!" Xander-sama replied nodding once before walking briskly away from her.

As soon as he disappeared into the crowd of villagers, she made off for the restaurant district to see what the specials were, what reservations could be made, and which one was the most romantic.

After all, preparation was everything both in love and in the life of a ninja.

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_**Exiting the Apartment Building of Anko and Kurenai, Twenty-five Minutes Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_I hope these new surprises I thought of work out._ Xander thought as he started to walk towards training ground thirteen, _If I use them just right, it won't matter how skilled the enemy is they'll still go down._

Ever since his trouncing by the Sound Trio, he'd been working on ways of handling a Chuunin or Jounin without getting so messed up in the process. It might have looked glorious on paper for the hero to emerge from the battlefield victorious yet covered in wounds but, in the world of the ninja, incurring multiple wounds unnecessarily was a sign of a sloppy shinobi. It was the one that could defeat multiple enemies without getting a single scratch or forced a superior foe to get serious that was considered a respectable ninja. So far his plan for dealing with a superior opponent or multiple opponents at his own level was coming up with all sorts of surprise attacks or moves that looked harmless but could, in fact, do serious damage if not stopped. He'd already equipped himself with two such methods that he'd come up with in the past two weeks and, while one was fairly safe to use on Ayeka, the other he'd have to use on a tree or something. The last thing he wanted was to put the pretty blonde back into the hospital, especially since he had a good idea why she'd volunteered to help him with his training today.

_I may not be Shikamaru, but even I can see a set up happening right in front of me._ He thought, remembering how convenient it was that Hana got called away for an 'emergency'.

Considering the sort of trouble that guy was going to get into when the Inuzuka girl figured out the truth, Ayeka must have ponied up quite a large sum of cash to make it worth the risk. That could only mean that she planned on stepping up her efforts to become his girlfriend and wanted some time alone in order to soften him up. That could mean anything from a simple date to one of those clichéd confession scenes where one person reveals that they love someone who previously had no clue. Personally, though, he'd been debating whether or not to ask her out on a date himself and, thus far, the debate seemed almost solidly won on the side of going out on a date with the woman. While initially she'd gotten on his nerves with the way she'd try and seduce him on a daily basis, he'd eventually come to discover that the blonde had several good qualities that he'd come to like. She'd ceased being a stranger and had become a good friend who he'd trust as much as he did Buffy. Now he figured it was time if there was a possibility of her becoming more than a friend or if she'd never be anything more than a good friend.

He honestly wasn't sure which he preferred at the moment.

His thoughts would have continued down this line of thought all the way to the training ground but when his eyes caught the movement of someone familiar moving swiftly through the village, his attention was captured instantly. Activating his Sharingan, he was able to instantly identify the person as his cousin Sasuke and, thanks to the enhancements to his vision that the kekkai genkai afforded, he could see the expression on his relation's face. It was one of fury and great concern. This caused him to immediately take to the rooftops and move on a course that would swiftly allow him to intercept his cousin or hook up with him. He knew there wasn't any current village crisis involved at the moment and so it could only be something a little more specific to the Team Seven member. It was also something far greater than simply an annoying Naruto or a difficult Kakashi. No, this was something that caused his cousin to feel a rage that could push a person to kill, to torture, and to inflict horrible pain upon a person.

He didn't like what that implied.

Whatever the case, he'd wait until he caught up with his relative before he made any choices or created any theories.

He caught up minutes later and, thankfully, the kid wasn't so lost in his feelings that he couldn't sense someone gaining on him from behind. The moody Genin looked over his shoulder at him but, once an I.D was made, his fellow Uchiha returned his gaze forward without a single word. Apparently he'd have to be the one to start this conversation if he was going to find out what had his cousin in such an uproar.

"You seem pretty rushed to get somewhere. Care to let me in on the news?"

For a moment it looked as though this would happen anyways but then an odd look entered into the eyes of Uchiha Sasuke and a decision was reached.

"I just found out that Itachi is back." Sasuke replied with a voice set on revenge, "He's back and after Naruto."

This almost caused him to lose his footing but he managed to catch himself in time without losing any sort of space between in the two of them. A minor miracle, considering the answer he got. To find out that the man responsible for robbing him of a caring and loving family was not only back in the immediate area but also was after the noisy ninja Naruto was the mother of all bombs to drop. Ever since he'd gotten the news of the massacre from the Third Hokage, he'd had more important things to think about than the family killing monster that he was connected to by blood. Now that he took the time to think about it, he wanted seriously to meet the asshole face to face just so he had an image to go with the horrible act. There was also the fact that if this criminal ninja was as much of a badass as everyone made him out to be, then Sasuke was going to need backup. He knew that the Team Seven member had been training ever since that horrible day to get strong enough to avenge the destruction of his clan but five years didn't compare to the ten plus years Itachi had. Then there was the possibility that the rogue ninja had an ally or back up of his own nearby. If that was indeed the case then Sasuke going at his older brother without help would be nothing less than suicide and he'd be damned if he was going to become the only non-criminal Uchiha in Konoha today.

"Then let's get our butts in gear!" He said with his resolve on his face, "You got any leads yet on where to find them?"

"I do but this is none of your concern. This is between me and Itachi!" Sasuke said, clearly not wanting anyone to get in the way of his revenge.

"Wrong. This is between Itachi and those of the Uchiha clan who are still alive." He said, making it clear he wouldn't be pushed out anytime soon, "Besides, what if Itachi has backup? You'll need someone to keep that person busy so you can do what you have to do."

This got a frown out of his relative but then Sasuke nodded once in acceptance of the fact that any Uchiha still alive had a legitimate claim on taking revenge upon his older brother.

"I learned from the owner of Ichiraku Ramen that Naruto and someone named Jiraya left Konoha and were heading to a lodging town not far away from the village." Sasuke explained as they passed through the village gates into the forest beyond, "It wasn't that long ago but we still have to hurry. With my brother after them, there's no telling when the two will meet."

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_**The Lodging Town, Thirty Minutes Later, Sasuke's P.O.V**_

"Any luck?" Xander asked as they hooked up again at the opposite side of the town from where they'd started.

"Nothing. You?" he asked growing frustrated with his lack of progress.

They'd arrived in town ten minutes ago and had been using ever minute since going from hotel to hotel asking if anyone had seen two people matching the descriptions of Naruto and the old man he was with. Thanks to the fact that there was two of them, they'd been able to cut the search time by half but the lack of results made this a consolation prize at best. Angry at their lack of progress, he looked towards the last hotel in town that remained unchecked and prayed that it was the one they wanted. Rushing inside he immediately went to the front desk person praying that this didn't turn out to be just another dead end.

"Is a blonde kid with a stupid face around my age and a big, white-haired man staying here?" he asked with urgency in the hope that the clerk would refrain dragging things out too long.

"White hair?" asked the woman sounding like white hair was out of the ordinary.

"Is he here?!" he asked with some anger entering into his voice.

"He'd have been dressed in green with red vest and possibly a large scroll on his back." Xander said contributing what he knew in the hopes of jogging the woman's memory.

"I think I might have seen the guy when I changed shifts." The woman replied as she tried to recall the facts, "Ah! A blonde kid and a white-haired old man.

"Are they here?! What room?!" he asked desperately as he saw his first bit of good news dangled in front of him.

"Let's see…second floor, end of the hall, room one." She replied checking the registration book.

With that news he took off for the room in question, not particularly caring whether or not he was being rude to the woman or not. If he was to catch Itachi and save Naruto he needed to move quickly and not worry about the little things like manners. Moving down the hall, he quickly located the one where Naruto and this Jiraiya person were supposedly staying in. Knocking gently so as not to announce his teammates location, he waited with rising impatience for the door to open so he could let his… fellow Genin know what sort of trouble he was in. His impatience was rewarded, though, as he heard the lock on the door being undone and as soon as he saw the door begin to open he pulled it the rest of the way quickly to save time.

"Naruto!" he exclaimed as though his voice could command the blonde ninja to appear before his eyes.

However the sight before him was not of a noisy ninja and some old man but rather just an ordinary kid and some old guy who probably couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag.

"It's not them…" he whispered in disbelief as his seemingly sure thing lead evaporated before his eyes.

"Sasuke!! The guy from the last shift just came back!" Xander yelled coming down the hallway with right hand raised to get his attention, "They're on the other side of the building! Top floor!"

With renewed hope that he could now make good on his promise of five years ago, the promise to avenge the decimation of his clan, he ran off with Xander taking up the rear. Feeling the 'reunion' between him and his brother quickly approaching, he let his mind drift back to that horrible night that his hatred was born. It had started out as such a normal day with his older brother going off on a mission while his mother tended to the house and his father enjoyed a day off. He'd wanted his brother to help him with his shuriken skills but, as always, the Pride of the Uchiha clan couldn't do it today. Not that that was any different than any other day, especially since it ended the same way as the others did with his brother saying he was sorry before tapping him on the forehead. He'd tried to understand why his brother avoided him so much and didn't seem to like him all that much but, before long, it was time to head off to the Academy for classes. It had been a routine day with him staying a little longer to work on his shuriken throwing skills, but he wasn't worried since he knew his family would still be up when he got home. Still, he'd known that his mother would scold him if he was **too** late, so he'd jogged the entire way home and had just entered the Uchiha district when he'd felt an unsettling presence fall upon him. It was like nothing he'd ever felt before but, just as he was beginning to get a proper feel for it, the presence vanished. Continuing home, he soon became worried when he noticed that just about every building in sight had its lights out, despite the fact that he knew they should be on at this time of night. Breaking into a run, he did his best to get home as soon as he could to find out what was going on but, when he arrived at his street, the sight before him shook his young mind to the core.

Everywhere he looked, there was either a bloody weapon or a body of an Uchiha with not a single one of the bodies were moving.

He'd been too young then to understand what had happened and had slipped into denial for a time before he finally got home to find it just as dark as the other buildings. He'd went room to room, looking for his family, hoping they'd know what was going on, but it wasn't until he'd heard two heavy thumps coming from the training room that he knew where they were. When he'd reached the doors, he'd moved to open them before realizing that if he did enter the room, the sight that greeted him might be the same as elsewhere. His parents could be dead. Eventually, though, once he'd convinced himself that they couldn't possibly be dead, he opened the door and entered the room. It was then that his worst fears were proven to be the truth as he saw, in the moonlight coming from the window, the bodies of his parents with blood spatters all around them on the wooden floor. He called out their names but, instead of a response from them, a form emerged from the darkness clad in the uniform of an ANBU ninja but without the white animal mask covering his face. For a moment he hadn't been able to identify the person but, when the being stepped into the moonlight, he could see that it was his older brother. He'd tried to find out from the only living person he'd come across what had happened but, before he could get more than a sentence or two out, Itachi had thrown a shuriken at him, cutting his shoulder. He'd tried to comprehend why his brother would have attacked him, the older brother he so badly wanted to be as good as someday, but soon after he asked the question why he was subjected to horrors almost unbearable.

That was when his brother used a potent genjutsu, using his new Mangekyou Sharingan to show him everything that had happened in unedited detail.

His mind almost broke that night.

He'd asked his brother why he'd killed his entire clan, desperate to find some sane reason for the insanity he'd seen, but the response he got was not satisfactory at all.

_To see what I was capable of._

In a foolish rage he'd charged his older brother as if his fury would be more than enough to kill someone revered as the strongest in their clan.

What an idiot he'd been back then!

He'd been punched out of his idiocy by his older brother and with the realization that he was too weak to beat his brother and the only Uchiha that had not been killed yet he'd fled in fear. It hadn't worked and Itachi had easily caught up with him, only to declare that he wasn't worth killing. It was then that he'd heard the words that would shape his life from that night to the present.

_Foolish little brother. If you wish to kill me, hate me, detest me and survive in an unsightly way. Run, run and cling to life._

He'd then been hit with the same genjutsu as earlier but this time his mind couldn't handle the strain and shut down to preserve itself. When he'd woken up the next day, he'd thought for a moment that it all had been a dream and that he'd just been injured in such a way that his mind had produced those horrible memories. However, overhearing the nurses speaking, he learned that the nightmare had been real and that, as far as he knew, he was the only Uchiha still alive aside from his monster of a brother. It had been that day that he'd come to the conclusion that the reason Itachi had left him alive was because he'd wanted his younger brother to become an Avenger and kill him. With that mission in mind, he'd dedicated himself to his studies, to becoming as powerful as possible as quickly as possible, to become strong enough to avenge the destruction of his clan. Now was the time for him to find out just how far he'd come and if it was enough to finally put the ghosts of the past to rest.

"So? We got a plan or are we just going to go at him and wing it?" Xander asked as they quickly approached Naruto's room.

"We're going to kill him!!" he replied, believing that that was all that needed to said on the matter.

"Yes… but shouldn't we have some sort of plan? He is an S rank criminal and one of the best Uchiha of his generation." Xander pointed out, sounding insistent on them having some sort of strategy, "How about this: I head in first and act as a decoy then, while he's focused on me, you run in and deliver the final blow?"

A sound enough plan but he didn't know how well Xander could fight. He'd heard secondhand accounts of his fights during the Chuunin exam and in the invasion that happened afterwards, but hearing about it and seeing it firsthand were two different things. Would Xander be able to be a sufficient enough distraction for him to kill Itachi? Would his cousin die in the attempt? These were the things he didn't know and, for a moment, he considered trying to come up with something better so that they could both survive this mission but as he saw the corner coming up quickly he decided to go with what they had.

"Fine. Just make sure you get his attention solely focused on you." He replied with the utmost seriousness.

"No problem. I came up with a few new tricks since the invasion." Xander said with a confident smile on his face, "You just make sure you're in place for the kill shot. Don't waste time on anything flashy. Just go for the kill."

He nodded but he had every intention of using his most powerful technique against his older sibling so that in his last moments of life Itachi could see how strong he'd become.

That monster would see the Avenger he'd created that fateful night.

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_**The Hallway Outside of Naruto's Hotel Room, One Minute Later, Itachi's P.O.V**_

"Itachi-san, it would be annoying if he moved around a lot." Kisame said looking down at the blonde brat in front of him, "Perhaps we should cut off a leg or two."

It was just like Kisame to want to do harm earlier than was needed but, in this case, he wasn't too worried about what it would do to the container of the Nine Tailed Fox. So long as the stumps were properly bandaged, the regenerative capabilities the child had, thanks to Kyuubi, would make sure Naruto wouldn't die before the Tailed Beast was extracted. Therefore he would let his partner have his fun but would be watchful so that the swordsman didn't go too far. Their leader wouldn't be happy if the container of the strongest tailed beast ended up dead before Akatsuki got what they wanted.

"Then I shall." Kisame said as he prepared to use his sword, Samehada, to sever the Konoha Genin's legs.

It was just as his partner was about to strike, though, that he sensed a presence at the end of the hallway and, while he did not recognize, it he could sense chakra about the person implying that he or she was a ninja.

"Sorry, shark face! Not going to happen. If you make a mess here then I'm the one who'll have to clean it up and I so hate manual labor." Came an unfamiliar voice that caused him to turn around to see who it was.

Standing at the end of the hall with one hand near a kunai holster while the other was kept free to move about was a young man of about seventeen years of age. Clad in the clothes of Konoha Shinobi and possessing the forehead protector of someone who'd graduated from the Academy, he predicted that the boy was either Chuunin or perhaps a less than spectacular Genin who was held back. The most important part though was the face of the person he was looking at, especially the eyes, since it told him who he was facing without actual words.

"Uchiha Alexander. This is unexpected." He said, confident in the knowledge that he was indeed looking at his cousin, "Why are you here?"

"Well, I thought I'd take a good look at the one who killed off all but one of my family, kick his ass and then take a spin by the local ramen shop." Alexander replied with a casual humor that was unique, "Not a bad plan, eh?"

"Oh? Seems like this kid thinks pretty highly of himself, Itachi-san." Kisame said turning to face the new arrival, "I wonder if he can actually pull it off."

"Let's find out!" Cried Alexander as he fired a trio of kunai at Kisame while at the same time charging forward.

A useless first move since deflecting the kunai would be as easy as existing for his partner and this made him think that they were most likely intended as a distraction. If so, his cousin would have another jutsu in the works that required him to get in close in order for it to be used effectively. This would prove highly useless, though, since the sword of Kisame would make getting in close very difficult and quite possibly fatal. He thought this right up until the point when the boy would have entered into range of Samehada then the young Uchiha leapt backwards while flinging both hands forward.

It was a feint.

He saw the true purpose of the move a second later when he saw six seals on each of the young man's hands before they became obscured by the smoke of a released seal. As it turned out the objects that had been sealed into the young Uchiha's gloves were six explosive tags with what looked like some sort of adhesive on the back. An interesting move since it was obviously the intent of the young man for the tags to adhere themselves to their targets before being detonated. Even if they didn't successfully attach themselves to Kisame, they would fall onto the floor or ceiling of the hallway, making it possible to perhaps remove his partner from play if only for a second or two. Was that the purpose of Alexander's movements? Possibly. Seeing the boy bring his hand up in the typical seal for detonating explosive tags, he moved himself clear of the blast zone while still remaining in range of Naruto. He suspected that now was the time when the new Uchiha would attack him in earnest but, when the sound of a thousand chirping birds reached his ears, he sensed a new player entering the situation.

"UCHIHA ITACHI! DIE!" Came a yell that he knew all to well and, with his Sharingan, the mass of chakra coming at him was easy to see.

With a move known to all ANBU, he deflected the attack by his little brother to the side, causing the wall of the building to be blown out. Then his arm flowed into the next act by grabbing ahold of Sasuke's wrist to restrain his sibling's movements. He now knew the name of the attack his sibling had used: Chidori. An attack that was the signature move of Copy Ninja Kakashi and, theoretically, could be used to pierce just about anything. It did, however, depend on being able to actually hit the target so if the person the user was trying to kill was faster, it was useless. Seeing someone approaching through the remaining smoke from the detonated explosive tags, he delivered a quick blow to stun his little brother then whirled him around before throwing him at the incoming attacker. As he'd intended, both Sasuke and Alexander were knocked to the ground in a heap a good fifteen feet away from his location. Hearing movement from the floor below, he watched as his partner Kisame leapt upwards to come down next to him.

"He's got a few surprises that boy does." Kisame said, sounding amused at the attempt, "I'm going to enjoy seeing what other ones he has before a shave him to pieces."

"Remember our mission, Kisame. Our objective is the container of the Kyuubi." He said pointedly, watching as his relatives got to their feet, "These two are merely… annoyances."

"Then maybe one more will make it a problem." Came a determined voice from the container of the Kyuubi.

Looking in the direction of the blonde kid he watched as an odd orange chakra began to flow around him before enveloping him completely. This was obviously the chakra of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox that the boy was attempting to call upon.

"So this is the Nine-Tails' chakra?" Kisame asked rhetorically as he gazed upon the swirling field of chakra about the blonde.

Seeing the boy about to perform a jutsu, Kisame acted appropriately by using his sword to devour the chakra Naruto had managed to bring forth from Kyuubi. Once that was done, his partner obviously moved to incapacitate the kid so that he wouldn't trouble them on the way back to the others. However just as the sword was about to hit the child, a large puff of smoke manifested with the sound of metal being hit coming soon after. When the smoke from the technique parted it was revealed that a large summoned toad with armored forearms had blocked the attack meant for Naruto.

"You two don't know me very well." Came the voice of the ninja that should have been distracted elsewhere at this point in time, "Jiraiya the man… is better at winning a girl… than being seduced by one."

The identity of the person was confirmed a moment later when a second explosion of smoke appeared to reveal the toad hermit Jiraya with the limp form of the woman he'd used a genjutsu on to draw the Sannin away from their target.

"I wouldn't let a woman seduce me with her beauty." Jiraiya continued to say full of arrogance and pride, "When you become great like me, women will go crazy over your own beauty."

"Yeah, right! You were excited over a simple wink from that woman!" Naruto exclaimed while pointing an accusatory finger at Jiraiya, "I don't think you should be showing off like that right now, Ero-sennin!"

"Come on, now. Don't call me that in front of people." Jiraiya pleaded with the boy with a look of embarrassment on his face.

Watching this little comedy routine, it was almost too much to believe that the white haired old man was really such a legendary ninja. One might also think that even if he had been such a famous ninja in his youth, that he had obviously gone downhill since then. For one who possessed Sharingan, though, and had the sense not to believe what one sees, he knew that the man in front of him was indeed as dangerous as his reputation indicated.

"Heheheheh! He is the great Jiraiya, who was praised as one of the legendary Sannin, after all." Said Kisame sounding quite amused at the little bit of improvised comedy they were being shown, "Even if you are an extreme lover of women, I knew that we couldn't hold you off that easily."

While he would not prevent his partner from getting what amusement he could out of the situation, he was not pleased when the comedy act continued and hoped it would not continue for much longer. While his little brother and cousin were currently waiting for an opening to attack, he doubted they'd stay inactive for very long. He would prefer to secure Naruto within the next few minutes and leave.

"It seems like you've dispelled the illusionary technique from that woman." Kisame said conversationally without removing his sword from the forearm of the summoned toad.

"You're a disgrace to all men, using your eye to hypnotize a woman to separate me from Naruto." Jiraiya scolded as he gently put the woman down again the wall, "So you're after Naruto, after all."

That statement was something of a surprise but, when he thought back to how Copy Ninja Kakashi had stated something similar, the connection became apparent.

"No wonder Kakashi-san knew." He said bringing his conclusions to bear, "I see now. You were the source. It is an urgent order by our organization, Akatsuki, to take Naruto-kun with us."

For a few moments eyes were locked as one tried to determine what the other would do next but, when the summoned frog was dispelled back to its own dimension, the Sannin seemed ready to voice his position.

"I can't hand Naruto over to you." Jiraiya stated with no indecisiveness in his voice.

"We'll see about that." He said as he began to formulate the most efficient way of beating the only real obstacle to acquiring his target.

"Very well, I will get rid of you two here." Jiraiya declared letting it be known that he wasn't about to back down from his statement.

"Don't interfere," came the order from his younger brother, who looked as though he was about to lose what little patience he had left. "The one who's going to kill him is me!"

"I have no interest in you right now." He said in order to make it clear that now was not the time for a fight between the two of them.

Perhaps in the future but certainly not now.

"Shut up!" Sasuke yelled as he charged forward, ready to engage in taijutsu.

_Very well. I will end this quickly._ He thought as he delivered a simple kick that possessed enough power to send his little brother down the hall to slam up against the wall at the end.

"Sasuke!!" Cried both Alexander and Naruto as both moved to render what assistance they could.

"I told you two that I don't want anyone to interfere!" Sasuke yelled at them as he got shakily back to his feet, "I've told you both before… I've lived up until now… for this moment… for this day!"

_Foolish little brother._ He thought as he watched his sibling activate his kekkai genkai and charged once again with his only formidable quality being his bellow of rage.

This time he blocked the attack only to deal a knee thrust and backhand combo that sent his little brother spiraling through the air back the way he came and back up against the wall Sasuke had impacted on moments before. Yet, even with this third bit of proof that he stood no chance, the young Uchiha Genin still didn't realize the futility of continued fighting.

_The knee thrust should have serious bruised if not broken a rib or two. _He thought mentally shaking his head in disappointment, _Has he learned nothing since we last saw one another?_

"This is my battle…" Sasuke managed to say despite the pain he was likely in.

"Wrong Sasuke! This is our fight!" Alexander snarled, who already had his Sharingan active as he moved to block the path to his cousin, "Take five and get your strength back. I'll make sure Itachi doesn't leave before you're ready to resume!"

"Very well." He said a little disappointed that his newly arrived cousin did not see the foolishness of his statement.

_Still it would at least appear that Jun'ko's son is smart enough to keep a calm head when moving into dangerous territory._ He thought as he advanced on his opponent of the moment, _A definite improvement over my little brother._

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_**The Hallway of the Hotel, Five Seconds Later, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Okay! I've just agreed to fight someone who's swatted aside Sasuke no less than three times like he was nothing._ Xander thought as he pulled two kunai from his equipment pouch and held one in an offensive position while the other was placed in a defensive grip, _Oh it's official! I've most definitely lost my mind!_

Still, he couldn't bring himself to just stand by and watch Itachi continue to brutalize and humiliate Sasuke like he had been since the confrontation began. He had to **DO** something, so he figured he'd try and stall until old man Jiraiya found an opening to either deal with these two Akatsuki goons or drove them off. Either possibility would do at this point and he couldn't care less how mad the Uchiha behind him would get for not being able to continue his fight. It was clear that however far Sasuke had come since the massacre all those years ago, he was still no match for his older brother Itachi. That, of course, would only make the younger Genin difficult to be around for the next few weeks but that couldn't be helped. At least his cousin would be alive, which was the exact opposite of what would happen if Sasuke continued to pick a fight with his older brother. Not that his chances were much better when it came to a fight with Itachi but he wouldn't be fighting to win, but rather to delay the S Class criminal until the Pervy Sage intervened.

_Time to get things started._ He thought as he moved in to begin his assault, _Here's hoping that my training up until now will let me survive at least a few more __**seconds**__ than Sasuke did._

His training for the past two weeks had been simple: master the ability to evade an enemy's attack the second contact was detected. He knew that the smarter move would be to practice evasion and nothing else but he also knew that against superior opponents it was unlikely that he'd be quick enough to move out of the way, even if his Sharingan allowed him to track their movements. That meant the most he could hope to do was take away as much of the destructive power from the blow as possible by rolling away from it or some other method of evasion. He was most definitely facing an opponent that he could not hope to match in terms of raw speed so the best he could hope for was to not take an attack full on. Attacking with the hand that had the kunai in the offensive position, he aimed for the elder Uchiha's wrist in the hopes of hitting a major artery or at least something that would prevent the formation of hand seals. If he could limit this to a taijutsu match, he might be able to keep himself alive longer or at least make sure there'd be a corpse to bury rather than a mound of ashes.

Turned out he was being too optimistic and the universe decided to make him pay for it.

Almost as soon as he had fully committed himself to the attack, his eyes picked up a knee heading towards his gut and tried his best to bring the hand with his defensive kunai into position to harness the power of the blow to aide in evading it.

He was about four seconds too late in attempting to block it.

The knee hit him in the stomach so hard he was lifted clear off the ground and the pain he felt was similar to the time he'd tried to keep one of the more powerful demons in Sunnydale away from Buffy until she was back on her feet. Considering how far he'd come training-wise, a similar blow would be lucky to wind him and that showed him how powerful Itachi truly was. Then, just as he was beginning to recover from the attack, another was landed to his back, sending him to the ground so hard he literally bounced. With two such powerful blows in the space of a few seconds, he knew that he'd be lucky to keep the fight going for more than a minute. Nevertheless, as soon as he felt he had enough strength, he did his best to roll to the side to avoid any further follow up blows and when he hit the wall of the hallway. Doing his best to get to his feet again, it was worrying him how hard it was getting his arms and legs to do what he wanted them to. It was like trying to move them while completely submerged in water but he made it eventually.

Just in time to be sent flying down the hall to hit the same wall as Sasuke was leaning against currently.

He'd definitely had some banged up ribs now and that effectively took him out of the fight because, with his torso all messed up, standing would be excruciatingly painful. Fighting would be near impossible since every little movement would cause him great pain. Added blows would also probably knock him out completely. When he felt a hand grip the front of his shirt and lift him off the ground, he got to feel just how painful standing up would be and he didn't like it one bit. It wasn't enough to make him fall unconscious but it was seriously close to making him cry out and let everyone know just how much pain he was in at that very moment.

"You have grown so weak, little brother. You have not improved at all since we last saw one another." Itachi said in a completely emotionless tone of voice, "Perhaps you need a little more motivation to rise above the rank of amateur. Perhaps seeing Alexander suffering because you were not strong enough to stop me will motivate you."

He didn't like the sound of that one bit.

With a jerking motion, Itachi forced him to look into his eyes and in that moment he knew what was being done.

Genjutsu.

Before he could say so much as a single word, the world changed around him. The usual rainbow of colors became limited to red, black, gray and white. He was also not where he had been moments ago but rather a distorted version of the Uchiha district that looked decidedly more lived in than when he'd last looked at it. The reason became clear when people began to walk up and down the streets with every last one of them having the Uchiha symbol on their outfits. For a moment he wondered what Itachi was trying to do showing him this and it was then that he got his first hint when one of the Uchiha was hit from behind by a trio of shuriken. The man fell to the ground dead and his death did not go unnoticed by the rest of the people around him as the rest went into a panic. Three more died before the perpetrator revealed himself as Uchiha Itachi himself, clad in ANBU gear but without the mask to cover his face. From there it was a true massacre because, despite how many ninja-trained Uchiha showed up, they were all defeated with absurd ease and they all died. It was then that he realized what he must be witnessing thanks to Itachi's genjutsu.

The Uchiha Clan massacre.

"This is what happened on that night five years ago," came Itachi's voice from the ANBU version, who was still dealing death to every Uchiha he laid eyes on. "In the space of a single night I slew every member of my clan."

The scene shifted to what looked like a private training room where a man and a woman knelt on the ground while Itachi stood over them, ninjato raised in preparation for a strike.

"Even my own parents." Itachi said before dealing death to the two people responsible for his life.

He then bore witness to what most likely happened to Sasuke that night. The cruelty, the evil, was unbelievable for someone to have perpetrated against their own little brother, and yet it had happened. He guessed that the purpose of this genjutsu was to get him as angry and revenge-driven as his younger cousin was but, in this, Itachi had miscalculated. While he did mourn the passing of his fellow Uchiha clan members and desire justice, he wasn't so foolish so as to abandon all reason in the pursuit of justice. He would play things smart and leave nothing to chance when the time came.

"Nice to know you're just as big a monster as everyone says you are, Itachi." He said without showing any fear, "But if this was supposed to make me do something stupid, I think you need to reconsider your strategy."

For a moment the cold blooded killer merely looked at him but then, without warning, the scenery around him changed into an endless ocean with him standing on the top of it like he was using the water walking technique. Then from the sea beneath his feet, chains with bindings at the end shot up securing themselves to his wrists, ankles and neck before pulling him down towards the sea that had become surprisingly solid. It was only after he'd made a cursory attempt to break free of the restraints that the member of Akatsuki revealed himself with ninjato in hand.

"If the horrors of the past are not enough, then perhaps this will be more effective." Itachi said as a raven landed on his shoulder, "For the next forty-eight hours you will be eaten alive by crows. Over and over again."

With those words, the raven on his shoulder flew down to land on his waist, looking him right in the eye for a moment, before it began to use its beak and talons to tear into him. It was painful, especially since the bird could only do it bits at a time, but he'd handled worse fighting alongside Buffy on the Hellmouth.

Then another crow landed on his leg and began to do its painful task.

Then another…

…and another…

…and another!

He lost count after five as the pain of being torn apart in such a manner began to make coherent thought hard to maintain. However there were two thoughts that kept repeating in his mind one after another despite the pain. The first was that he wondered how many times he'd have to go through this pain before the forty-eight hours were up. The second was how he could keep it together mentally until the time limit was up. Depending on the answers to both questions, this could very well be his final fight.

For what seemed like forever the pain bombarded his mind and he did his best to focus on anything with a stronger mental presence than the pain. Then, all of a sudden, the pain began to fade bit by bit as though it were slowly dying. So it went until there was nothing for him to feel. Nothing at all to feel.

Then in the blink of an eye he felt exactly like he had when the whole mess with the genjutsu began with no injuries that he had previous to the point when he'd looked into Itachi's eyes.

"You have survived. Only forty-seven hours, fifty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds to go." Itachi declared before the crow that was once again on his shoulder hopped down.

_Only one second has passed!! For all that!!_ He thought loudly as he got the answer to his first of his two thoughts.

As the pecking and tearing began anew he knew more than ever he needed a thought, an image, to keep himself from shattering under the strain that the pain would place on his mind. Like a slide show on fast forward, his mind sifted through the memories he had for one that resonated strongly enough to not only match and trump the pain. One after another was considered but as the pain got worse they were rejected because while strong in their own rights they fell short of what he needed.

In the end there was only one memory that appeared to have sufficient strength.

He'd pin all his hopes on **her**.

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_**Five Hours Later (Relatively Speaking), Within the Genjutsu Tsukuyomi, Itachi's P.O.V**_

_Alexander is strong for his age,_ Itachi thought as he watched the crows he'd created finish his younger cousin off once more, _but he won't last much longer._

He'd debated for a few moments whether to leave this Genin alive or not but decided that, while potentially longer lasting, it would run the risk of giving Sasuke hope that his older cousin might recover one day. No. It would be better to add another death to his little brother's already guilt-ridden spirit and this time have it happen right in front of him rather than after the death itself. Thus it would have all the more impact and serve the purpose he intended it to.

He could feel through his link to Uchiha Alexander that his mind was already on the verge of collapsing in on itself. All that held it together was one single memory but even that was beginning to show signs of failing. Like a glass window with wiring embedded in it to increase its strength, the mind of the Uchiha from America strained to remain whole despite the every present pressure placed on it. Such a hastily put together defense could not possibly hold out against the strength of his genjutsu but he was growing bored waiting and so sped up time within this illusionary world. This accelerated the rate at which the crows tore into the flesh of their prey until there was naught but bone left causing the process to repeat itself once again. Now, without the brief respite's between the nothingness the bones felt and the torture beginning anew, the frail defense Alexander had put up began to crumble as though it were made of sand.

Now was the end of the story of Uchiha Alexander.

Or so it seemed for without warning a figure leapt from out of the ether of the genjutsu itself to land next to the suffering Uchiha and, in a matter of seconds, had either dispersed or killed all the ravens before they could do much damage this time around. Now that the unknown figure was still, he could now see that it was a Konoha Kunoichi armed with kunai and judging by the flak jacket was apparently a Jounin.

This was not supposed to happen.

By executing Tsukuyomi, he was to be in complete control over this illusionary world, making it impossible for anyone but he to dictate what happened here. The only explanation could be that there was some part of his mind that wanted the teenager in front of him to live and thus had created a defender to save him. With that in mind, he reinforced his desire to end the life of the American as much as he could then waited for the unintentional defender to fade away.

She did not.

"You will not harm my Alexander anymore." Came a voice from both the kunoichi and the past, "You will not kill my **son,** Itachi!!"

With those words, the female Jounin turned fully to face him and the face of one Uchiha Jun'ko in her prime was revealed much to his surprise. While he did remember his aunt, he had not thought of her in years and barely recalled her face when the blood message was sent to him by some unknown person months ago, so it was bizarre that he would choose her form to protect Alexander. This did not shake his belief that he himself was somehow preventing the final blow from falling upon his target and so he decided that if he was to accomplish his objective that he had to destroy the protector himself. With the powers this imaginary world afforded him, he was able to vanish from where he'd been standing only to reappear behind the kunoichi with a kunai already headed for a vital organ.

Until a gentle hand stopped his weapon-wielding one in its tracks.

Tracking the restraining hand back to its main body and then to the head, he received a shock so great it nearly broke his concentration as well as the genjutsu.

It was another woman and one he knew all too well.

After all how could one forget the woman who brought them into the world?

It was Uchiha Mikoto.

"No, Itachi. Enough." She said with a voice that was not of this world.

"Indeed, my son. This one is not for you," came the voice of his father as a manly hand clamped down on his right shoulder. "Let him go."

With the presence of three impossible forms, all of which had chosen to protect Uchiha Alexander, his concentration and his composure finally shattered.

At the same time so, too, did Tsukuyomi.

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_**The Hallway of the Hotel, Merely One Second After the Genjutsu was Activated, Jiraiya's P.O.V**_

_What? It's happening again!_ Jiraiya thought as he watched the Uchiha pinned down by Itachi begin to emit that black chakra again.

When the eldest Uchiha had begun to wipe the floor with the younger members of his clan, he had spent every second looking for a way to help them but had come up empty. While he didn't like seeing the next generation of Konoha shinobi getting the crap kicked out of them, he knew that his number one priority had to be protecting Naruto. It was the blonde Genin that these two Akatsuki were after and, if he left the noisy ninja's side, then he would be completely vulnerable to attack and abduction. So all he could do was wait and hope that something made Kisame and Itachi sloppy enough that he could turn the tables on them. It was without warning, then that one second after the Uchiha member of Akatsuki looked into the eyes of his younger cousin than the black chakra emerged and the same feeling as during the invasion manifested.

What surprised him next though was the fact that Uchiha Itachi actually released his hold on Alexander and took a couple of steps back.

Almost as though he were shocked about… something.

Alexander was leaning up against the wall and using it for support but, when he raised his eyes to look at Itachi, not only were his eyes flickering between the milky look of the dead and normal eyes, but also his Sharingan was activated. He still hadn't figured out the full nature of what was happening but whatever it truly was, it must be what was disturbing Itachi's usual stoicism. Then, even though it was hard for him to see, he watched as the Sharingan gained a third tomoe to become a fully evolved Sharingan. It was something of a surprise but he remembered learning that after the initial manifestation of the kekkai genkai, it only took serious training in order to cause it to fully evolve like it just had. There was no set time or level of training when it came to making it evolve into its three tomoed state but, for this to happen to Alexander, it must mean that he'd met the necessary requirements.

"I… will not… die here. I will not… fall here." Alexander said with the odd multi-voice that seemed to go along with the unsettling chakra, "I…"

That was all he said, though, before the unusual chakra dispersed like it was blown away by some unknown wind and his body dropped to the ground as though someone had robbed his body of the strength that had been keeping it up. Thus he fell but, before he could hit the ground, in an act that surprised everyone, Sasuke managed to force his body to move enough to catch his cousin. It was undoubtedly painful for the younger brother of Uchiha Itachi but the mere act that he did it showed that maybe, just maybe, there might be more than revenge in the young ninja's heart.

"Bastards!! Leave him alone!!" Naruto yelled before charging down the hallway, no doubt with the intent of kicking Itachi's ass.

_Idiot! He's just going to get himself hurt and captured!_ He thought as he watched Kisame begin to pursue the blonde Genin, _I have to do something __**now**__!_

Forming hand seals as quickly as he could, he slammed both hands to the floor to complete the technique. He had to grin as he watched both Kisame and Naruto stop in their tracks as the inner stomach tissue began to wrap itself around their feet.

"What's this?" Naruto asked as he looked at the completely covered hallway around him.

"Ninpou Gamaguchi Shibari." He replied as he then began to surround both Sasuke and Alexander in the tissue, both to protect them as well as to make sure the youngest Uchiha didn't do anything stupid, "You're out of luck, Itachi, Kisame. You're inside my stomach, now. I summoned the esophagus of a gigantic frog from the Myouboku Mountain's rock inn. You two are wanted criminals anyway. I'll turn you two into food for this rock frog."

For a moment it looked as though the two Akatsuki might be considering continuing the fight.

"Kisame, come." Itachi said before running down the hallway to the right in an effort to escape.

With those words, the swordsman of Akatsuki ripped his feet out of the tissue that had been holding him and immediately ran to catch up to his partner.

"It's useless." He said refusing to let them get away to attack again later, "No one has ever escaped from this before."

With those words, he sent out tendrils of tissue after them and invested enough chakra in the move to make sure that his attack would move faster than they could possibly run. He could feel the swordsman fighting it and knew they were heading for the window at the end of the hall, so he willed some more of the esophagus to cover up that window. It all seemed to be going well until an explosion of some kind caused the floor beneath his feet to shake and he felt the tissue he'd used to cover the window die in a flash. Worried and surprised, he immediately stood up and ran for the source of the explosion, hoping that his strongest hunch wasn't true. He reached the corner around which the blast happened in seconds and, when he did, his eyes fell upon a hole in the wall with little flames of blackness dancing around the edges. It looked like Itachi had used some sort of fire element jutsu but, considering that the toad that this esophagus tissue came from was able to **breath** fire, no technique he knew of should have been able to burn through it.

_Then again I've never seen black flames before._ He thought as Naruto got a closer look, _No way of knowing what properties it possesses._

"Don't go near it!" He yelled at the idiot ninja as he got a little too close to the black flames.

Taking out a special sealing scroll, he walked as close to the flames as he dared before he rolled it out and began to write down a specific series of symbols and words. He couldn't leave this fire to burn out on its own and he knew that paying the bill for repairing what damage had been done already would be steep. When his preparations were done, he quickly formed a set of hand seals before slamming his right hand to the ground. Then, following the instructions that he'd written on his scroll, the chakra first surrounded the flames and, once the energy had been properly wrapped up, he pulled it off the hole before pushing it into the scroll. It took some effort but, once it was all in and the symbol appeared confirming that it was sealed, he quickly wrapped the scroll up and tied it shut as tightly as he could. He'd have the experts back in Konoha analyze it further to determine exactly how dangerous it was and perhaps how one could defend against it.

Assuming it was possible to defend against.

"What was that, Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked, looking at the scroll in his hand.

"Nothing you need to worry about. Now let's go check on Sasuke and Alexander." He said as they both ran back to where the two Uchiha were.

Mentally willing the tissue to unwrap them, he could see that Sasuke hadn't let go of his older cousin at all or tried to escape to pursue the focus of his revenge. This looked to be a good thing but, as he got closer and saw the expression on the face of Itachi's younger brother, he worried about how this might affect him. The deaths of all his clan had already set him on the path of vengeance and now he had just watched his newest relation subjected to painful torment. Would that temper the desire to avenge his clan or would it merely make Sasuke's fury burn all the hotter when he thought of his older brother?

It was not a question he thought he would like to hear the answer to that question just yet.

Stamping down on the ground, his terminated the Ninpou Gamaguchi Shibari technique, causing the esophagus tissue to go back to the dimension it came from. Looking as Sasuke and Naruto gently laid Alexander up against the wall, he looked at the older Uchiha and was not liking what he was seeing at all. The oldest of the three Genin had both eyes open, there was no sign of consciousness in them at all or signs that any outside stimulus was affecting him whatsoever. Using what first aid and medical know how he'd picked up from Tsunade, he began to evaluate the injuries the strange young man had. It wasn't pretty but it wasn't as bad as he'd feared when he'd watched the blows land. Three cracked ribs, a **lot** of bruising and, given the use of a Sharingan eye technique, probably an impressive amount of psychological damage. Still, if what he'd heard of the kid's stay in the hospital after the Sound and Sand invasion was true, then there'd likely be some damage to the nervous system as well since it seemed to go along with that weird black chakra.

_Anko's not going to be happy about this._ He thought as he prepared to move over to check Sasuke's injuries.

However he didn't get the chance.

"SEN'EIJASHU!!" A female voice snarled before four snakes shot out and wrapped themselves around his limbs.

"DAINAMIKKU ENTORII!!" Came another before something he believed was a foot slammed into his face, causing quite a bit of pain.

Surprise and the strength of the snakes were the only reason why it hit and, when he'd come to a stop, he look to see the face of the person who'd dare hit him.

Maito Gai and coming up behind him was none other than Mitarashi Anko.

One filled him with annoyance while the other made him sympathize with what she'd be feeling seconds from now.

"XANDER!!" Anko exclaimed before running to the side of her newest student.

He watched as she performed her own examination of the Genin that was her responsibility before looking up at him with the question 'what the **hell** happened here' burning in her eyes.

This wasn't going to be pleasant.

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_**Hidden Village of Konoha, Konoha Hospital, Three Hours Later, Hana's P.O.V**_

_THAT STUPID, ARROGANT, WRECKLESS IDIOT!!_ Hana mentally screamed as she stormed down the hallway of the hospital with people getting out of her way on pure instinct, _WHAT THE HELL WAS HE THINKING?!? AAAHHHH!!_

It had been less than twenty minutes since she'd been notified by an orderly from the hospital that Wannabe had been brought in by Anko but, thanks to what she'd found out after discovering that Mishima bitch's trick, she was already in a towering rage. First she'd been angry because Ayeka had tricked her into leaving so that she could have some alone time with Wannabe. Then she'd gotten angrier because she was angry that the two were alone together when it shouldn't have mattered if those ahou got together. She'd been so upset that she immediately sought out the blonde to tell her off and then tell Xander off for not figuring out the manipulator's scheme. However, when she'd finally tracked down her teammate, she was alone and looked around with a look of growing concern on her face. It had been then that she'd learned that the Uchiha hadn't shown up for their little 'training session' and she was now trying to find out where he was by tracing the route he'd likely have taken to get to the training grounds. This got her worried since, with only a few exceptions early on when the ladies of Konoha got particularly inventive with their attempts to secure the new Uchiha, Wannabe was usually good at arriving at a location on time. Ayeka and her had both agreed to seek out Anko-sensei immediately to see if she knew anything but, when they'd arrived, they'd found the Jounin office in an uproar. Everyone was moving about, issuing orders about sending out search parties and trying to locate Naruto, making her wonder what the noisy kid had done now. It had been two minutes later that they'd found out the truth: two S class rogue ninja had fought Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai at the river. They had put the Copy Ninja in the hospital and apparently had given the other two a run for their money, despite the strength they possessed. When they'd gotten to Anko-sensei's desk, their teacher had been talking with Kurenai-san and they'd heard the genjutsu expert finish her debriefing with how Uchiha Sasuke had found out that his older brother Itachi had been one of the rogue ninja involved.

Both older women had been of the same opinion that the man who'd blurted out that little fact in the presence of the self-proclaimed Avenger was a complete idiot.

While she hadn't had much knowledge about the revenge-obsessed Uchiha before Wannabe had been put onto her team, she'd learned enough since then to know that such news would put the moody Genin on the warpath. Add that to Xander's sudden disappearance and it didn't take a genius to know that the two had bumped into one another with her teammate deciding to tag along as backup. Her first impulse had been to run off with Ayeka to catch up with the hotheaded fool but Anko-sensei had spotted the two of them and had figured things out without a word needing to be spoken by. Anko had been halfway to the front gates and had hooked up with Maito Gai before she and self-proclaimed future husband of Uchiha Alexader had caught up with their teacher. They'd volunteered to go along but had been firmly and loudly told to stay put with the threat of punishment by Gai's training methods if they disobeyed her. Given that Maito Gai and Rock Lee set absurd goals for themselves during their training, there was no way she was going to allow herself to be locked into that sort of torture. Ayeka felt the same way so, with the utmost reluctance, they'd stayed in the village watching Anko-sensei and Gai-san run for where they thought Wannabe would be headed.

She'd tried, really, but she'd never been all that good at waiting.

She had been on the verge of risking Gai's training when the orderly had arrived to inform her of Xander and Anko-sensei's return.

Now she was determined to give that newbie ninja a piece of her mind that he would **NEVER** forget. Seeing the door to the room he was in coming up, she closed the distance in no time and, with one arm, flung it open fully ready to start a tongue lashing to end all tongue lashings. Her words died on her lips when she took in the scene before her and her mind began to be filled with the emotion that everyone else in the room appeared to be feeling.

Worry.

Lying in bed, still as a corpse except for the occasional blinking of the eyes, was none other that Uchiha Alexander. She knew he was alive, her senses were sharp enough to confirm that, but everything she had come to expect from him like how he acted or what he did was missing. It felt wrong and so she walked up to the bed to figure out what was going on.

"What happened, Anko-sensei?"

"I didn't get the full story from Jiraiya-sama, but Xander and Sasuke tried to stop Itachi and his partner from making off with Naruto but got their asses handed to them instead." Anko-sensei replied, looking up from their team member, "Xander apparently tried to buy some time for Sasuke to get back into the fight but wound up being made an example of by Itachi. Some sort of high level genjutsu involving Sharingan."

She had to gasp at that because she had learned at the Academy how devastating genjutsu could be even if you had some way of breaking them. They could confuse, scare and, in some really bad cases, they could kill a ninja without leaving a single mark on the enemy's body. While she was quite glad that he was alive, only time would tell if it might have been kinder to everyone if Uchiha Xander had died.

Waiting for someone you care about to wake up from a serious affliction could wear down a soul given enough time.

"He's got three cracked ribs and enough bruising to make him look like he rolled in paint, but the medical-nin tell me that can be handled easily enough." Anko-sensei said, continuing her explanation of Wannabe's condition, "The damage done to his mind though… they've done all they know to do."

"NO! This can't be the best they can do!!" Ayeka screamed from the other side of the bed, "There has to be **something**!!"

The girl who would be Lady Uchiha had dropped all pretenses and acts to show her true self and that spoke volumes about how their teammate's condition was affecting her. From the first day that she'd met the blonde, the girl had done nothing but act like she had a greater future in store for her than the rest of them. The Mishima girl had been such a brat and, when they both became members of Team Anko, it had only been the purple-haired Jounin who'd kept her from clawing blondie to pieces. Eventually, though, she had gotten used to the bitch, like one gets used to a bad smell, it got bothersome at times the way Ayeka would whine about her latest noble catch getting away. Now though, now she looked like your average teenage girl who was worried sick over her ailing friend.

"Maybe. According to Gai, both Naruto and Jiraiya are off looking for the legendary medical-nin specialist, Senju Tsunade." Anko-sensei replied with a little hope in her eyes, "Among medical jutsu users, she's considered to be in a league of her own. If they can successfully bring her back to Konoha, then there's a chance she can heal Xander-kun."

It was something to hope for in any case.

"How long do you think it'll take them to find her?" Aykea asked with her mood rising with the possibility of her teammate recovering.

"No way of knowing." Anko-sensei replied, returning her gaze to her newest pupil, "Most of what I know about Tsunade says she's a gambling addict who has the absolute worst luck. Given the number of towns and villages that'd have casinos and gambling dens, tracking her down will take time no matter how well they search for her."

"They'll do it! Naruto's the number one ninja of surprises!! He'll find her." Ayeka declared, full of conviction in the abilities of the Genin that had managed to surprise just about everyone at some point in his life.

"Damn right! The two of them will bring her back and then, when Wannabe wakes up, he's going to get an earful from me about taking reckless S class chances!" She said as she sat down on the only available chair, "In fact, I'm going to sit right here until he wakes up!"

Yep! He was going to get an earful alright so she'd better get it straight in her head what she was going to say to him.

Something starting with how she'd introduce him to all levels of hell if he ever tried to pull another stunt like this again.

That'd work just fine.

For a start, that is.

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_**The Konoha Hospital, Two Days Later, Morning, Hyuuga Hinata's P.O.V**_

"The doctors say that I've almost completely recovered from when I got hurt during my match with Neji," Hinata said to the young man lying on the bed staring vacantly at the ceiling. "They say that I'll be able to start some light training soon. I'm glad. I wasn't able to help protect the village during the invasion but I'll be sure to be ready next time!"

It was unusual for her to speak to someone that, in all likelihood, couldn't hear her in the first place but, at the same time, it was less awkward. If he was asleep then she didn't have to worry about how he'd react if she said something stupid or weird. It was one of her greatest fears that something she said or did would cause people to have a poor opinion of her, both as a person as well as a ninja. She knew that she wasn't as good at Jyuuken as Neji, couldn't throw kunai as well as Tenten and didn't know as many ninjutsu as Xander, but she never stopped trying her best to improve. She wanted to improve so that the person who taught her never to give up would finally notice her and recognize her existence. She knew it would be a long road but she hoped… she wanted to believe that when she finally reached the end, that she'd have the strength to speak the words of her heart.

"I heard about how you protected your teammates. You're just like Naruto-kun in some ways. You never give up when your friends or family are on the line." She said, remembering what she'd heard from others, "Even though you were up against two S class ninja, you didn't back down. You fought to protect Sasuke even though you might have been killed. I think… I think that you could become good friends with Naruto."

It was true that there were many similarities between Xander and Naruto. Both of them were loyal to those they cared about and they both did their best to cheer up those around them whenever it seemed necessary. They both had the potential to become great ninja and they both inspired her to be better than she was the day before.

Now, though, Xander-kun was in the hospital, hurt once again protecting those he cared about, and all hopes for his recovery rested on Naruto-kun being able to find Senju Tsunade. When she'd first learned of this, she'd done what she could to research on the granddaughter of the First Hokage in an effort to deduce where she could be at the moment. As she did so, she learned more about Tsunade herself and found herself to be both impressed as well as a little discouraged. Indeed the student of the Third Hokage was a kunoichi to be respected but most of the information pertained to her shinobi skills rather than her personal habits. There was very little about how she'd act outside of situations involving the life of a ninja and, from what she'd heard, Tsunade had pretty much stopped being a ninja after one disastrous mission during the last Great Ninja War. With her ninja habits useless and her more personal habits not on record, figuring out where she was now would be downright impossible. So it was because of that failure that she'd come to Xander-kun's room to let him know she'd failed to find any information that might be useful in locating the person who could heal him.

"I… I'm sorry that I couldn't find anything about where Tsunade is so that I could send it to Naruto-kun. I looked in every record I could get but there was nothing recent about where she could be found." She said as her guilt at failing caused some of her stuttering to return, "But I'm sure that Naruto-kun and Jiraiya-sama will find her! They'll bring her back so she can heal you! I'm sure of it!

"I have to go now. Kiba-kun and the others will need me for the mission we've been assigned." Hinata said, getting up from the seat she'd been sitting on, "I-If you're still here when we get back, I-I'll try and visit."

With that she left the room and began heading towards the spot where she'd meet up with the rest of Team Kurenai so that they could proceed with the C rank mission they'd been assigned.

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_**Konoha Hospital, Two Days Later, Noon, Nara Shikamaru's P.O.V**_

"Now how would you move in this situation Xander?" Shikamaru asked as he looked down at the shogi board.

Of course the guy in the bed didn't say anything but, based on how the Uchiha had fought during the Chuunin exams, he felt he had a feel for how the American would respond to his moves. True, he had never heard of the member of Team Anko ever playing the game before, so he just used the moves and strategies he knew and tried to guess which ones he'd favor based on personality. It wasn't as fun as it could be if the Uchiha were awake and able to move the pieces on his own, but there was nothing he could do about it. He was no medical-nin and, even if he was, every other healer in the hospital had tried to solve the problem and come up with nothing. Everyone's hopes of seeing Uchiha Xander walk out of the hospital awake and well rode on Uzumaki Naruto bringing back a legendary kunoichi whose ability to cure illnesses and counter poisons was in a league of its own. If she couldn't somehow cure him, then Konoha could very well lose one of its more promising Genin. He'd never say it out loud but he'd been impressed by how the Uchiha had fought him during the final matches of the Chuunin Exam. He'd come prepared for each of his opponents, both in terms of equipment and as far as strategy was concerned. Flash beads to counter his Shadow Imitation technique. Destroying his cover to keep him from gaining time to formulate a foolproof strategy. Being mindful of the potential range of his enemy's techniques. Most of all, though, he was impressed that the Uchiha had had the foresight to have an escape plan at the ready just in case he was caught in a bind. Thinking back at that fight, he could think up at least three ways he might have been able to turn things around and claim victory.

However it would've been too troublesome in the end, so he was glad things had ended the way they had.

Moving a piece on Xander's side of the board, he began to wonder about the two shinobi who'd inflicted such harm upon the member of Team Anko. According to what he'd heard, the enemy ninja were Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame of a mysterious organization known as Akatsuki. The high rank bigwigs were keeping a tight lid on the details but, on a whim, he'd done some surface research on both names and didn't like what he'd found out. The first, Uchiha Itachi, was infamous in Konoha both for his prowess as a ninja and for the slaughter of all but two of his clan. The other, Hoshigaki Kisame, was a former ninja of Kirigakure as well as a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Both were S class missing-nin skilled in the use of taijutsu, ninjutsu and probably genjutsu. All techniques would probably be at their disposal, no matter the rank. He'd thought about looking through all the jutsus that Konoha had on file both locally and for Mist ninja's but then he realized how many there were.

No way was he going to try and do something so troublesome as try to memorize them all.

Hearing the door open, he turned to see who it was and saw that it was Anko-sensei with what looked like flowers from Ino's shop.

"Shikamaru? What are you doing here?" Anko asked, sounding genuinely surprised at his presence.

"My mother heard about what happened to Xander and said I should visit since he was a fellow finalist during the Chuunin exam." He replied, figuring this little white lie would be better than the truth, "It's troublesome since I had plans for this morning but it'd have been more troublesome to say no to my mom, so here I am."

Okay so maybe it was just a half-truth rather than a white lie. His mother really had heard that Uchiha Xander had been hurt badly and she had suggested that it might be a nice thing to do to visit but it hadn't been something that she would have gotten upset about if he'd said no. The reason he'd come in the end was simple curiosity and the fact that he knew he'd be able to hear some of the details of what had happened in the hospital easier than in the Jounin offices. The doctors, nurses and orderlies were real gossip mongers when they had too much time on their hands. A few well-chosen observation points and he was able to learn quite a bit about the two members of Akatsuki based on what sort of damage they'd done to Sasuke and Xander. So, all in all, he'd decided that the benefits of coming here had definitely been worth the loss of a free morning.

Now if he could only figure out a way to make this match of shogi more interesting than playing against himself.


	18. One Door Closes and Another Opens

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material shown herein. They all belong to their respective creators and associated companies. I make no money off of this whatsoever. I write only for my own enjoyment and for those that like to read my stories.

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_**Konoha Hospital, Two Days Later, Mid-Afternoon, Uchiha Sasuke's P.O.V**_

Again.

Again he had failed to stop his older brother Itachi.

Failed and instead of him paying the price for that failure, Alexander was the one who'd suffered the most.

He hadn't escaped from the fight unscathed but his injuries had been easily handled. While they weren't quite ready to discharge him just yet, neither was he still so injured that they made sure he stayed in bed. It was only today though that he'd chosen to visit his cousin. Up until today he hadn't been able to face the most recent example of his brother's evil but eventually he felt it necessary to see the new reason he had for putting an end to his brother. Looking at Alexander from where he stood, he could tell that the medical nins had completed most of their work on his physical injuries with time the only thing needed now for recovery. The injuries of the mind, though, were beyond any ninja healer currently in Konoha and would require nothing less than the skills of a legend to repair. He knew firsthand the sort of hell that Itachi could put someone through with his Mangekyou Sharingan and, for a moment, he wondered what sort of torture his older sibling had visited upon their newest relative. It would without a doubt have been something painful, either emotionally or physically, in order to wreak the sort of psychological damage to put Alexander in this state. Had it been repeated viewings of a loved one's death or had it been simply been never ending physical torture?

In the end it didn't matter what had been done.

All that mattered was the end result.

His cousin was lying in a bed, staring vacantly at the ceiling and only his autonomic functions were causing his body to move at all.

This caused his anger to rise within him as his imagination came up with worst case scenarios of how the future might unfold in the days and weeks to come. What if Naruto failed to find Senju Tsunade? What if she refused to come back to Konoha? Would Alexander stay this way forever or would some other medical specialist find a way to heal him? He didn't know and that lack of knowing one way or another only frustrated him all the more. This frustration only fed the anger within him until, without willing it, he could feel his Sharingan activate, changing the way the world looked in his eyes. He swore, swore on the life of the Uchiha in front of him, that his brother Itachi would die for all the death and misery that he left in his wake! He knew that as the gap between himself and his older brother hadn't closed as much as he'd wanted, he would triple his training efforts in order to get stronger.

He would also be adding his cousin's method of sealing explosive tags into his hands.

It would be a useful technique and, if he could somehow get gloves that were the same color as the ink, he'd use then his enemies would be completely in the dark until he actually undid the seals. It would be a nice surprise to have up his sleeve and, if he could build on the idea somehow, make it better, then it'd give him an advantage when he next faced Itachi.

Getting up from his chair, he decided to go back to his room so that he could begin planning his training schedule without any… distractions holding him back. He couldn't have anything holding him back if he was to catch up with Itachi and avenge the death of so many family members. Nothing was more important than that objective.

Absolutely **nothing**.

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_**Konoha Hospital, Evening, Two Days Later, Inuzuka Hana's P.O.V **_

_You better wake up soon, Xander._ Hana thought looking up from a scroll she'd borrowed from her mother's library, _It's not fair of you to have everyone in such a snit and not let them yell at you._

It had been eight days since her teammate had been brought back with his cousin and there had yet to be any real improvement in the situation as far as his mind went. The docs had made it clear that the odds of the Uchiha managing to come out of his current state on his own were slim at best. Psychological damage via genjutsu was usually quite thorough and, as was the case with Copy Ninja Kakashi, even the most experienced of shinobi could be brought down with the right technique. Every adult was telling her that she should wait for Naruto to get back with Tsunade but it had been eight days already and she was beginning to lose her patience. Not that she was known for patience to begin with but what little she did have had been almost completely used up, leaving only a few drops and fumes for her to work with. If that blonde-haired kid didn't come back soon, she was going to head out with her partners to track him down just to give him a piece of her mind.

In a way it might be easier on Xander if she did go off and blow off some steam.

Then she remembered how pissed she was that Wannabe had gone off with only that moody Sasuke as backup.

She was going to make his ears bleed with the tongue lashing she was going to give him!

In the midst of this thought, she remembered the amused look on Anko-sensei's face two days ago when she'd last come to visit Xander. She'd called the Jounin on it and the woman had the gall to insinuate that she was acting more like a worried girlfriend than a teammate! Her! Wannabe's girlfriend!! **Yeah**!! **RIGHT**!! Even if she **had** accepted the guy into Team Anko and even **if** she had come to respect him as a ninja, she didn't see how that could possibly translate to her… **liking**… him in a 'more than friendship' sort of way. AARRRGGHH!! It was driving her insane, that memory was, and no matter how much she tried to repress it the thing never failed to pop up whenever she started thinking about telling off Xander when he woke up. Yet another reason to want Naruto to hurry back to Konoha with the super medical-nin, so she could tell off Wannabe and get the whole mess out of her system. Maybe once she said her piece to him, that one damn conversation would finally leave her alone so things could get back to normal.

The old fossils on the village council had allowed Team Anko some time off because they were down a member, but not one of them expected that that'd last would forever. While the number of casualties from the invasion hadn't been as bad as it could have been, Konoha was still in a tight spot. It needed every available ninja, from Genin to Jounin to ANBU, working their hardest to keep their enemies from thinking about trying something shady. She figured that at best she had about three or four days before she, Ayeka and Anko-sensei would have to go off on a couple of missions, whether they wanted to or not. Anko would probably be a bit pissed but would follow orders, Ayeka would, of course, do her best to come up a reason for her to stay close to her 'future husband' and she'd probably resist leaving on a mission just to piss those bags of bones off. If necessary, she'd look up their own rules and use them to her benefit if simply refusing wasn't enough to get them to leave her alone.

And she'd pound the first person to imply that the reason she refused to leave on a mission was because she was worried about Uchiha Xander in a more than friendship sort of way.

Even if… even if it **might** have some truth to it.

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_**Konoha Hospital, Two Days Later, Morning, Ayeka's P.O.V**_

_Please wake up, Xander-sama. _Ayeka thought as she placed another bunch of flowers from Yamanaka's Flower Shop into a water filled vase, _I… I miss you._

It had been ten days since that horrible day when she'd learned that the young man she had set her eyes on had been seriously hurt fighting some S class ninja. She hadn't wanted to believe it but, after seeing the Uchiha for herself, she could not refute what she had been told about his condition. Ever since then she'd been spending almost every free moment she had at his side and only when either Anko-sensei or her mother forced her did she do anything else. They said they were doing so because it wasn't healthy for her to worry so constantly about her teammate to the exclusion of all else. Upon objective reflection, or at least as close as she could come to it, she had to admit they sort of had a point. More than once she'd found herself having gone more than five hours without a single thing to drink or eat and this caused her stomach to growl at embarrassing moments. She tried to watch herself, to keep from doing things that would make others worry, but all it took was a few moments looking at Xander-kun to make his situation her entire world.

Sometimes she smiled slightly in wonder at how far she'd come since that day when Anko'd first introduced her and Hana to their new teammate. In the beginning she'd been resistant to the addition of a stranger to Team Anko but had warmed up considerably when she'd found out that he was a member of the illustrious Uchiha clan. It had always been a goal of hers to rise above her current societal standing and ensure that when she left this world she was better off than when she entered it. She'd hated the possibility of living her life never doing anything other than what was expected of someone 'at her level of society' and so strove to rise up to become more than anyone thought she could be. True, her dedication to training and improving herself as a ninja hadn't been as strong as her efforts to marry into one of the more powerful ninja clans in Konoha, but she'd been working to change that in the last couple of weeks.

Ever since that nightmare of a journey through the Forest of Death, she'd been doing what she could to improve her skills as a shinobi so that she could be more than a trophy wife to her future husband. Learning the skills of a medical-nin had been at the top of her list, followed by increasing her skill with projectile combat but, thanks to Hana no Bitch's sneaky little getaway, her training had been almost completely derailed. In the end she'd been forced to go into the Final Matches not much better than when she'd fought in the preliminary matches a month before. Then those three Sound whores had shown up and she'd been forced to watch Xander-sama get beat up once more before somehow turning things around with that weird black chakra jutsu. She still wasn't sure what it was but she knew that the American Uchiha had still wound up in the hospital afterwards, making it clear that if Xander-kun was going to keep getting into trouble like this, he'd need back up. Back up she'd be if she had any say in things.

_Being 'Lady Uchiha' doesn't seem quite so important anymore._ She thought, sitting down in the same chair she'd been using since the young man before her had been admitted, _Not when I want more than just a title. Not when I truly wish to earn his heart._

Indeed, the 'gold digging' Hana had accused her of had gradually given way to true affection and was well on its way to becoming something more. Oh, sure, she might use some of the some tactics and her thoughts might roll down paths similar to when she'd only been interested in rank and title, but the feelings behind them had changed making all the difference. Where once there had merely been selfish ambition there was now a growing flame of affection that had already grown large enough that the status of focus of the fire was enough to severely mess her up mentally. She doubted very much that she'd be in any sort of mission ready shape until something happened to convince her that Xander-sama would make a full recovery.

"C'mon! C'mon! Hurry up, Tsunade-no-baa-chan!!" Came the familiar yelling of one Uzumaki Naruto from the hallway of the hospital.

"Tsunade?!" She exclaimed before shooting out of her chair and running for the door to the room.

Using the doorframe to stop herself, she looked in the direction she'd heard the younger Genin's voice come from and saw something that caused her hopes to soar. Coming down the hallway just a couple of feet behind the noisy ninja was a blonde woman looking to be in her early twenties but walked with the presence of someone much older. She wondered if this really was the legendary Sannin that Uzumaki had been off to find, seeing as how the student of the Third should have been in her fifties. However she didn't think that even the number one ninja at surprising people would be this hyped up if the person he was leading down the hall was a fake of some kind. Plus she doubted that someone impersonating the granddaughter of the First Hokage and one of the Legendary Sannin would have gotten very far into the village. As the Sannin reached the doorframe, she automatically reacted to the presence of a superior ninja and stepped aside to let the fellow blonde kunoichi enter. Watching her walk over to the bed where Uchiha Xander was, she wondered if this was the moment where all her hopes for the past ten days would be realized or if she'd plunge to new levels of sorrow.

"Uchiha Alexander, eh?" She heard the woman remark with a mix of amusement and fondness, "You definitely take after your mother in the looks department, kid."

Walking back over to the bed she watched as the older woman formed a hand seal and then placed a hand emitting a green chakra field on Xander-sama's forehead. Wondering what technique it was only for a moment, she then focused all of her attention on the face of the one who meant so much to her. She watched his eyes for the slightest flicker. She watched his mouth for the smallest voluntary movement. It seemed like an eternity had passed but, when she heard the first moan of awakening coming from the mouth of her teammate and potential significant other, she became so happy that tears of joy began to flow down her cheeks. Watching his eyelids pull back to reveal brown eyes that were once more full of life instead of the blankness of before, she quickly moved to the side of the bed opposite Tsunade-sama in order to be the first to welcome him back.

That is until he uttered his first full sentence.

"Man do I hope I checked the 'do not revive' box because I'm most definitely looking at heaven right now." Xander said with his eyes looking right at Tsunade's quite substantial chest.

For a moment everyone in the room froze as they waited to see how the blonde woman would react to such a lewd comment but the silence was broken when Tsunade barked with laughter before settling into a few moments of giggling. This relaxed just about everyone in the room and, now that he was fully awake, Xander-sama seemed to realize in 'inappropriateness' of his words, if the nervous look of embarrassment was anything to go by. He looked properly guilty and sorry for what he'd just said, so she'd let the comment slide by just this once. Besides, it wasn't the size of a woman's chest that mattered but rather how they were presented that matters. With the right clothes, just about any cup size could seem attractive to a guy and besides at least her chest was nice, firm and appropriately gravity defying, unlike Tsunade's, which were noticeably sagging. Ahhh, the horrors of growing old!

"HA! You're definitely Jun'ko's kid! She had a knack for saying the wrong things after waking up, too. Fortunately she soon learned her lesson." Tsunade said finally done chuckling at the Genin's statement, "You know what that lesson was, Alexander?"

"Um…no?" Xander-sama replied, obviously thinking he was in a verbal minefield at the moment.

"Never say anything to piss off someone who can turn you into a greasy stain on the floor." Tsunade replied with a tone in her voice and a look in her eyes that sent shivers through those that saw both, "Simple, isn't it?"

"Yep! Real simple!" Xander-kun said right away, nodding his head rapidly.

"Then I'll leave you to the rest of your recovery. If your chart is any hint, they should be able to discharge you as soon as tomorrow." Tsunade said with her face completely clear of any anger or warning as she looked over his medical chart, "I suggest you learn how to think before you speak or else you're going to get into trouble down the road."

"Yeah! Yeah! C'mon! Kakashi-sensei's next, Tsunade-no-baa-chan!!" Naruto exclaimed, obviously impatient for his Jounin teacher to be healed.

"Yeah, yeah!" Tsunade-sama sighed as she and the rest of the group walked out of the room.

She didn't miss how Xander-sama slumped in relief at the departure of one of the most powerful ninja in Konoha history. Not that she could blame him, since the blonde student of the Third Hokage was reputed to be so strong she could demolish an entire building with only her bare fists and a few surgical punches. The very thought of having someone like that pissed at her was enough to make her vow always to be on her very best behavior whenever she was in the older woman's presence. Even if she made it to the rank of Jounin, she'd always show the proper respect since she knew that those that did otherwise would be lucky if they lived to regret it.

For now, though, it was just her and Xander-sama and she had a question she'd like to have an answer to if only to satisfy her own curiosity.

"So, Xander-sama, you like women with a good rack on them? Is that right?" She asked with a playful smile on her face as a decidedly uneasy look appeared on Xander-kun's face.

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_**In the Tree Outside of Xander's Hospital Room, Same Time**_

_He will recover now._ Thought he masked figure from her perch in the tree, _Now I can finally fulfill the last order given to me by Third._

It had been six weeks since she'd been summoned by the Third Hokage, where she was given a package along with very specific and serious orders. When the man called the Professor explained everything, she'd felt both honored at what she'd been asked to do and angry at the reason the Third had deemed it necessary to devise the orders in the first place. The very idea that there were those in powerful positions who would see this young man deprived of his rightful inheritance for no other reason than because they thought they could use it better. With the orders given, she'd left the office of the Hokage with the package in hand and had done her best to keep it safe until such time as a new Hokage was officially declared. She wondered if Third knew it would be Tsunade who'd be selected in the end by the village council.

Probably.

Whatever the truth might have been, she now had to find just the right time to meet with Tsunade-sama so she could deliver the package along with the reasons for why it was in her care.

She would allow no one to get in the way of fulfilling this mission.

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_**Three Days Later, The Hallway of Hokage Tower, Top Floor, Late Morning, Xander's P.O.V**_

"I wonder what Hokage-sama wanted to talk to us about." Xander asked as he and the others continued towards the office of the Hokage.

"Dunno. I wasn't told anything other than to bring you all with me." Anko-sensei stated in a tone that made it clear she didn't know any more than the rest of them.

"Well we'll find out when we get here." Hana said, sounding bored even though she was keeping her eyes peeled for the entrance to their destination.

It had been only a little over an hour ago that the messenger had popped up on the other side of the apartment door with orders for Team Anko to be in the Hokage's office in one hour. It'd taken them a bit of time to round up Hana and Ayeka but, once they had, they'd proceeded to the Tower with the standard load out for a mission just in case that was the reason for the summons. As they finally set eyes on the entrance to the office, he realized that this would be the first time that he'd get a chance to really take with the kunoichi face to face. That little discussion they'd had when he'd woken up didn't count. He wondered what she was really like, the Jounin teacher of his mother, and if she'd be willing to set aside some time to tell him about what Uchiha Jun'ko was like in her prime. Probably not, considering the amount of paperwork and other things that she had to catch up on with her new position in the village. Still, he hoped that eventually, once things calmed down enough, that they'd be able to spend some time getting to know one another better. He wanted to know more about what his mother was like when she was his age so that the good memories would outnumber the bad ones. Until enough free time opened up for both of them, though, he would have to be patient and use the good times he was making with the rest of Team Anko to make do until then.

Stopping in front of the door, Anko-sensei knocked twice on the door before waiting to be invited in.

"Come." Came Tsunade's voice from the other side of the door.

Obeying the purple-haired Jounin opened the door and led her team inside where the Fifth Hokage and her assistant Shizune, who stood off to the side. He'd expected those two when he'd been gearing up but he also saw that all three examiners from the Chuunin Exam were present, including Hayate, who, while still in a wheelchair, looked a lot better than the last time they'd met. It'd been a little after the invasion once he'd recovered enough from his wounds to take brief walks around the hospital that he'd learned that Hayate had awoken. The wounds he'd incurred from that Sand ninja had been serious and, until that day soon after the invasion, the man had been unconscious in bed with his injuries. It had lightened the load on his heart that the Jounin he'd tried to save that night so long ago would both live and most likely make a full recovery given enough time.

"You wished to see us, Hokage-sama?" Anko asked with the rest of her team taking up positions behind her.

"Yes. As you may know, due to the invasion by the Hidden Villages of Sound and Sand, the Chuunin Exam had to be cancelled before it could be completed. Now normally this would mean that all finalists would have to wait until the next Exam before they could have another chance to become Chuunin." Tsunade-sama replied, opening a folder that had been sitting in front of her, "However, after reviewing the reports of the examiners as well as the various V. in attendance, it would seem they were impressed both Uchiha Xander's tactics as well as his stamina. Therefore I have decided that as of today he will no longer be Genin but Chuunin. I hope you will justify our faith in your abilities."

Whoa.

Of all the things he'd expected this meeting to be about, his promotion to Chuunin certainly wasn't even in the top five possibilities. Looking at Ayeka and Hana, he could tell that they were surprised as well not to mention a little annoyed that they were going to have to wait for the next Chuunin Exam before they could rise up in rank. Then, though, they looked at him with smiles on their faces that clearly said 'good for you' without actually saying the words. Regardless of their own personal feelings, he was their teammate and as such they would be happy for him when he accomplished something.

Looking over to the ahou Ebisu, the pompous idiot walked over to him with a Chuunin flak jacket in hand. He'd never liked the asshole ever since the jackass called him a future traitor but, unless the bastard provoked him, he'd do his best to keep things professional. When the flak jacket was held out for him, he reached out and attempted to take it, the jerk held onto it before angling his head just right so he could look over the top of his sunglasses.

"Do **not** betray the trust Hokage-sama has chosen to place in you with this, boy." Ebisu stated with cold words that implied bad things would happen if they were not heeded, "Treat it like the honor and responsibility it truly is."

With that the prick let go of the flak jacket and then resumed his position next to the rest of the Chuunin Exam Examiners. Deciding that now was as good a time as any he told Ava to wait over by the windowsill for a moment so he could slip on the flak jacket. The bird mentally felt a little surly to him but he supposed that she was still feeling a little miffed at him both for what happened during the invasion as well as his less than spectacular attempt to back up Sasuke. Thanks to the bond they shared, his pain would have filtered over to her, even though they'd both made an effort to prevent unwanted spillover between their individual minds. While he'd like to think they were closer to becoming partners like Hana was with her three dogs, he knew that with the bird's attitude it'd take quite a bit longer before such a close partnership could come to pass. Once he had the flak jacket on and all zipped up, the bird hopped back onto his shoulder.

"Not bad, Wannabe! Give it a little bit of time and you might actually look like you deserve it." Hana declared, slapping him on the back with her usual playful smile on her face.

Everyone but him had a good chuckle at that comment but, in the end, he supposed that he'd better get used to it. Inuzuka Hana never missed an opportunity to needle him or make fun of him, so he figured he had about a month of this coming his way before she ran out of material to use. What happened next, though, was a bit of a surprise. With a single look from Tsunade, everyone except for Shizune left the room, leaving only Team Anko standing in the office of the Fifth Hokage.

"There is one final matter than needs to be handled," Tsunade-sama said before she picked up a package and opened it up for all to see. "Before the final matches of the Chuunin Exam, the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, carried out one final bit of business and had it made official. Due to concerns that certain members of the village council might object he placed this package containing the official documents involved in the care of a trusted member of ANBU. The documents were to be delivered to me once my position as Fifth Hokage was made official. They pertain to you, Uchiha Alexander."

"What was this 'final bit of business', Hokage-sama?" He asked, keeping his tone professional and formal since he didn't risk angering the insanely strong woman.

"Well, ever since the decimation of Uchiha clan by Itachi, all of its holdings and assets have been held in trust by the village council until such time as a member of that clan was old enough to take possession of it. Up until now it was believed that Sasuke would be the one to take possession of the clan assets but, now that you're here and of the necessary age for Konoha, the Third decided that it would all be signed over to you." Tsunade-sama replied, passing him the documents so he could see their contents himself, "This effectively makes you the head of the Uchiha clan. Congratulations!"

This news completely floored him and made it impossible to think up an appropriate way to respond, so his mouth went on autopilot while the rest of his brain struggled with the new input.

"Um…thanks." He said before a feeling came over him to cause him to look to the right.

Ayeka was looking at him like a mountain of gold and rubies. While he himself might not be a mountain of treasure, it was entirely possible that the Uchiha holdings did indeed contain enough riches to form the pile that the Mishima could dive into them. He had a feeling that this little revelation would only make the blonde all the more determined to be the one he placed a wedding ring on.

_Just when she was beginning to act like a normal girl in love rather than a marriage-crazed Uchiha hunter._ He thought as he looked back towards Tsunade-sama, _Still, since we seem to be on a bit of a roll with shocks and surprises, I guess I'll spring mine on Hokage-sama just to see how it'll go._

"Hokage-sama… I have something of a request, maybe a suggestion I'd like to make." He said, trying to formulate his request into something convincing.

"Huh? What is it?" Tsunade asked, sounding as surprised as everyone else in the room did.

"Well I was wondering if it'd be possible to have Team Anko assigned to the Sunnydale Hellmouth." He said, knowing he sounded less than certain that he needed to be, "I know that things are difficult here thanks to the damage Orochimaru and the Hidden Village of Sand, but I believe that maintaining a presence on the Hellmouth is important as well. If the defenders that are there fall, Konoha would not be free of the consequences. I believe it would be in Konoha's best interests to make sure that there is a ninja presence there to keep an eye on things and take action if necessary."

There.

He'd said it.

Now to see what kind of response he'd get.

"Eager to get back to your friends, are you?" Tsunade asked rhetorically, sounding like she'd expected something like this, "Well I'm afraid that I cannot grant your request and not because I think you're wrong about keeping an eye on the Sunnydale Hellmouth. I've heard enough stories about what goes on there to know if things went south there, the whole world would be in danger. The problem comes from the fact that not long after the village was founded and began to work under the current system, we signed a treaty of sorts with the Watcher's Council. I won't bore you with the details, I know I wish I hadn't been, but the bottom line is that once the Council establishes a presence someplace, we're to steer clear unless explicitly invited by the ruling board of the Council."

That certainly sounded like the sort of thing the Council Giles occasionally muttered four letter words about would do. Still, he wasn't ready to concede defeat in his desire to head back home to Sunnydale.

"What if Konoha established a presence first?" He asked, hoping that the stray thought he'd just had worked.

"Well, if I remember correctly, if Konoha were to establish a presence in a given area first, then they'd have control of that area and the Watcher's Council would have to avoid the area unless specifically asked by me." Tsunade replied as a twinkle suddenly appeared in her eyes, implying that she had just had the same thought he had.

"Well then, unless you specifically sent them notification of my mother's 'death' eighteen years ago, then it could be said that Konoha had a presence before the current Slayer showed up." He said, building on the bit of progress he'd managed to make.

"They'd no doubt ask why they weren't informed of your mother being on the Hellmouth eighteen years ago." Tsunade stated, pointing out the first hurdle that they'd have to overcome with the Council.

"You could, theoretically speaking, say that Uchiha Jun'ko was on a top secret mission in Sunnydale and that there were concerns that if the great and mighty Watcher's Council began acting funny around such a supernatural hotspot, that it might compromise the mission." He said, mixing just the right amount of feasibility with a liberal amount of white lies, "Therefore it was decided that unless my mother's presence in Sunnydale directly affected the Watcher's Council or its agents, that her presence would be kept secret. If they ask why they're only learning about it just now, you could say that with the mess of the invasion and the subsequent establishing of a new Hokage, the notice just got bogged down in the bureaucracy of it all."

"Heheheheh. Smart. Still there's the little matter of your Slayer friend, Buffy, and her Watcher." Tsunade said with some amusement at the weaving of words he was managing, "If we do as you say, then they'll have to leave as per the treaty's stipulations."

"Not necessarily. As you mentioned, the treaty says the other party must stay away from the area where you have established a presence unless specifically invited. What if we specifically invite Buffy Summers and Rupert Giles to work with us in Sunnydale in the interests of strengthening ties between the two organizations?" He explained, sounding more confident than ever that his plan would work, "However you could stipulate that the two people named are non-negotiable since you don't want to take the chance that some 'ambitious' Watcher might violate the trust between the two groups. If they push back, threaten to deny them any access at all to Sunnydale and the Hellmouth. The odds of them throwing away their foothold on the basis of a personnel dispute has to be pretty low indeed."

"Indeed. They also wouldn't want to throw away the chance to learn our secrets. The rest of the village council will likely point out that while keeping an eye on an active Hellmouth is important, it might not be important enough to risk village secrets getting into the hands of the Watchers." Tsunade pointed out, reminding the newly promoted Chuunin.

"Then offer to assign a member of ANBU to act as overseer to make sure that Team Anko doesn't spill any secrets and the Watchers Council doesn't stick its nose where it's not wanted." He suggested, figuring that having someone from ANBU might be security enough for those old farts, "Just make sure that whoever gets assigned is fair and doesn't play favorites."

"I think I know just the one. Very well," Tsunade said with a nod of agreement. "Give me a few days to iron out the details and 'convince' the village council to back the plan. Assuming there are no hiccups, you should have your mission orders by mid-week."

"By your command, Hokage-sama." He said with a bow though, judging from the look on Anko-sensei's face, she'd gotten the Battlestar Galactica reference and was rolling her eyes in response.

He merely gave his patented lopsided smile in response.

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_**The Front Gates of Konoha, Two Days Later, Morning, Anko's P.O.V**_

"What's keeping that ANBU?" she muttered to herself as she kept looking about for any sign of the man Hokage-sama had assigned to Team Anko for this mission.

It had been an hour ago that they'd been called to Tsunade-sama's office to receive their official orders as well as the restrictions that the village council placed on what they could do while carrying out this mission. The mission Xander-kun had outlined had remained mostly unchanged, monitor the Hellmouth and prevent world-ending level events from coming to pass, but there were several restrictions which she just knew came from the old hag and old man. The first was that Team Anko would make every effort to keep Konoha's secrets from being discovered both by choosing a home location outside of the Sunnydale city limits. They were also forbidden to use their jutsu outside of official missions and had to do all they could to blend in so that no one would know Konoha had shinobi stationed in America on a long term basis. If the other hidden villages learned of their presence, they might send agents of their own and this would unnecessarily complicate matters. They would also do their best to keep their relationship with the Slayer and her Watcher purely professional and only interact on a more social basis. This was given less emphasis than the other restrictions by Tsunade-sama, making it clear that she would not pay any real attention if such acts came up in official reports. The final stipulation was that Team Anko was to return home every summer in person both to undergo review of their activities in the United States and accomplish a quota of missions in the region.

None of the stipulations were unreasonable but it definitely didn't leave much room for them to work with once they got to Sunnydale.

On top of that, they'd been told that the village council had fought tooth and nail on who would be assigned to the team from ANBU but, in the end, the one that Tsunade had chosen had been accepted.

Reluctantly.

Now they were waiting at the front gates, just like they'd been doing for the past fifteen minutes, but the ANBU hadn't arrived yet and she was starting to get impatient. Right then and there she decided that if the masked black ops agent didn't show up within the next thirty minutes, she would leave with the team no matter what. She knew that the stipulations were the only things that were keeping the village council from stopping them but there was such a thing as limits.

"Maybe he's having trouble deciding what animal mask he wants to wear?" Xander-kun asked with some humor in his voice.

"Or maybe he's flipping through his personae books to decide what sort of person he should be around us?" Hana asked mockingly, it being clear that she didn't like waiting.

"Or maybe he got here before and decided to wait and observe for a bit before revealing himself." Came an unfamiliar male voice from the right side of the front gates.

As one they looked in the direction of the voice and saw an ANBU soldier separate himself from the wooden door of the front gate. He didn't look much older than Xander-kun, maybe two or three years, but was definitely ANBU, if the tattoo on his shoulder was true, and he was dressed as one as well. Black clothes with grey armor on top and a ninjato strapped to his back. As for the face mask it looked like the guy had chosen to go with a cat themed one making her wonder what the implications of that could be.

"Oh? And what have you observed?" Xander-kun asked politely but with a little coldness in his eyes.

"That of the four of you, only two have any patience at all and neither of them are Genin." Replied the ANBU as he walked into their midst.

This did not go over well with either Hana or Ayeka but a look from her and Xander kept the duo from tearing into the ANBU verbally as well as perhaps physically if things spiraled too far out of control.

"You got a name?" she asked with a little warning put into her question.

"For this assignment I've been given the name Hisoka." Replied the ANBU now to be called Hisoka.

"Alright then, Hisoka, next time you want to learn something about the people you're going to be working with, just ask." She stated, making it clear that she wouldn't tolerate much more covert 'observing'.

"Hai, Anko-san." Hisoka stated, bowing formally for a moment.

Why did she get the feeling his making a face at her underneath that mask of his?

"Now that we're all here, I'll lay out our travel plans. We'll head north then enter the territory protected by ninjas from the Hidden Village of Waterfall. Once we reach the sea, we'll take a boat north to Guangzhou, where we'll hop on a flight back to Los Angeles in California," Anko explained in her official briefing tone of voice. "Once we're in America we'll buy some local clothes and then drive down to Sunnydale. When we've arrived at our destination we'll make a temporary HQ at one of the local hotels until we can locate a more permanent address that matches the criteria given by Hokage-sama. Only then can we begin out monitoring of the Hellmouth and potential threats to the world. Any questions?"

"Not so much of a question as it is a suggestion. If we stop over in Japan there's a good chance we could get clothes that much sooner and blend in a bit better even with these clothes." Xander-kun said with confidence in his words, "Worse comes to worse, we could just say that we're a couple of Anime fans doing a little cosplay and just decided to shop a bit."

"Not a bad idea and we'll probably have to stop there anyway before continuing on to the U.S. anyway," she said, mulling over the suggestion for a moment. "Anyone else have something to add?"

Heads shaken in the negative were all she got in response.

"Then let's move out! Follow me!" She declared as she began to take the first steps towards their destination of the day.

It was probably a good thing for all that she didn't see the rolling eyes and the exasperated shaking of heads.

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_**Five Days Later, A Village Near the Border Between Waterfall Territory and Fire Country**_

_**Mid-Day, Inuzuka Hana's P.O.V**_

"About time we hit a village." Hana said with a yawn as she walked alongside her teammates down the busy street, "I was getting tired of sleeping outdoors."

Truthfully it wasn't so much the sleeping outdoors that bothered her so much what the others got up to once they'd set up camp for the night. Ayeka was back on the 'woo Wannabe routine', Anko spent most of her time eating dango and Hisoka often wandered off returning at random times with no explanation as to what he'd been up to. It'd gotten so bad that she'd taken to taking baths at odd hours or when she knew that the ANBU was with Anko-sensei just in case the idiot turned out to be some sort of pervert. She'd be happier knowing that they'd be divided into male and female baths from here on out and if they managed to get separate rooms for each gender it'd be even better. Not that such things would keep a perverted ninja from trying to sneak a peek but it would at least make things harder than it'd be out in the middle of the woods where there'd be a lot of cover to hide behind. She knew she didn't have to worry about Wannabe peeping but she didn't know this ANBU idiot at all, so she refused to take chances until he understood him better.

"You and me both!" Ayeka commented as she tried to brush off some dirt that had gotten on her clothes, "I know that rouging it is part of the ninja way of life but I'll take a nice clean hotel over a tent anytime. Right, Xander-sama?"

"A hotel is nice but it's a little hard to do any training when you're in a village like this." Xander replied, looking about the street to see what it has to offer, "Still, it'll be a nice change of pace and probably better than what we'll have to put up with on the boat we'll be taking."

No kidding!

Even though there were passenger boats that made the trip between Waterfall territory and Guangzhou often, the sort of rooms you got varied from boat to boat. Depending on what was available when they got there and what they could afford, they could wind up in rooms ranging from luxurious to downright putrid. If she had any say in the matter, they'd turn down all ships that weren't at least as clean as her room, even if it meant they had to wait a couple of days for the right one. There was no way she was spending who knew how many days on a boat that either stunk to high heaven or needed a serious cleaning.

Then, of course, there was the other problem.

She, like her partners, always got a little seasick whenever they had to travel by boat.

It was something she did her best to hide, often staying in whatever room they had on the boat for the entire trip, but she had a feeling that Anko-sensei knew her secret. How else do you explain how her Jounin teacher continually found new reasons to reject missions that had a chance of leading to boat travel? She appreciated it but now there was no way to avoid it, so she'd just have to do her best to endure the unpleasantness that was boat travel.

"Where do you suppose Hisoka got off to?" She asked, looking about the street for any sign of the ANBU ninja.

"He's probably on the rooftops keeping track of us." Xander replied, looking up to see if he could spot anything.

"Not necessarily. Having an ANBU of Konoha hopping rooftops in Waterfall territory would attract attention and that's the last thing those black op boys want." Anko-sensei declared, looking more at the people around them, "It's more likely he's disguised himself as a local and is following at a safe distance. Far enough away that he won't be considered part of our group but close enough that he could move in to help if some trouble got dropped in our laps."

"Makes sense," Xander-kun stated, taking his eyes off the rooftops and putting them onto the crowd around them.

Taking an experimental sniff, she tried to see if she could smell the ANBU anywhere near them but, amidst the scents of the street and the people, there was nothing to tip her off that the masked shinobi was anywhere nearby. Either he was positioned so that smelling him would be impossible or had some sort of jutsu that kept his scent from being picked up. It wouldn't be completely beyond the realm of possibility, considering the sort of missions they were regularly assigned, but it just made her all the more leery of the guy being assigned to Team Anko while they were in the United States. She didn't like having someone around that she couldn't keep an eye or a nose on. Such people often liked to surprise her at all the wrong times and she wasn't a big fan of surprises that were directed at her.

"So where are we going to stay?"

"Well, we're coming up on the hotel district of the village." Anko-sensei said, pointing out the signs that all had hotel or inn as a theme, "Take your pick but remember our spending budget. Nothing too fancy or you'll be sleeping on the floor before we even step on American soil."

Sensei didn't have to worry about that sort of spending from her. So long as the place had passed all the tests it had to and looked decent enough, she had no trouble sleeping in that sort of hotel. However if it turned out to be a complete dive or had something suspicious going on, she was going to decline the place and then try to decide whether or not to do the village a favor by tearing it down with a four pronged Gatsūga.

"How about this one?" Ayeka said, pointing out a hotel that apparently had a hot spring area as well, "Doesn't look too pricy."

_What the--?! Miss 'I-wanna-be-a-noble' actually approves of a place that doesn't scream luxury!? _Hana thought with shock as she immediately became suspicious of her teammate's intentions, _What is she up to?_

"What's got you looking at this place, Ayeka?" Anko-sensei asked with similar suspiciousness in her voice.

"Well I'll admit it's a little middle class for my tastes, but you said yourself we had to watch our spending so I decided to use this as a compromise." Ayeka replied, actually managing to sound convincing for the most part, "So what do you think?"

Her reasons seemed to be logical enough and did ring with just right trueness of the Mishima way of thinking, but she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something she was missing.

"I guess it looks good enough. Let's check in!" Anko-sensei said as she guided the team into the chosen hotel.

Walking up at the tail end of the group, she looked at the various signs that decorated the outside of the hotel telling people who pass by what it had to offer. It wasn't until she was almost halfway into the doorframe that she spotted one that stopped her cold and made it clear why Ayeka had chosen this place.

Co-ed hot spring available to guests!

Just when she thought that she might be able to get a break from Ayeka's efforts to woo Wannabe, the blonde pulled something sneaky like this. It was enough for her to consider avoiding the hot spring that the hotel offered altogether if it weren't for one little thing she knew about Mishima Ayeka. Whenever the projectile specialist got even a little momentum in anything she did, she often continued down that line of action until something happened to show her the error of her ways. If she avoided the hot spring, it'd mean leaving Wannabe at the mercy of blondie whenever she decided to make her move. Unopposed, it'd be like this the entire trip to America and that was more than she was prepared to endure for the sake of the team. However she couldn't just come straight out and tell Xander that the only reason why Ayeka chose this hotel was to get him into the co-ed hot spring so could show off her merchandise. At most this might simply mean that Anko-sensei would come along to monitor things but, knowing the Jounin, she'd be so amused by whatever the Mishima girl did that she'd only step in if things went from wooing to raunchy. Thus, when you got right down to it, there was only one way she could derail her blonde teammate's agenda and that'd be if she herself was present in the hot spring the entire time the Wannabe was there.

After all, two people alone might be romantic but three at once would put a serious flaw into the status conscious kunoichi's plans.

She didn't like it.

She'd especially hate it if she actually had to… flaunt… in front of the Uchiha if simply being there didn't do what she wanted it to.

_AARRRGGHHH!! I swear ever since Wannabe showed up in Konoha things have been turned completely upside down!! _She thought angrily as she watched Anko-sensei check them into the hotel, _This kind of trouble I __**don't**__ need!!_

At the same time though a part of her sort of wondered what it'd mean if she actually wound up catching Xander's eye instead of Ayeka.

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_**Early Evening, The Hotel Hot Spring, Xander's P.O.V**_

_Only ME! Only I could wind up in a place that many guys would consider paradise and experience __**HELL**__ instead!_ Xander thought as he sat in the hot spring up to his chest while the scenery tried to lure him to his demise.

On the one side he had Mishima Ayeka wearing two strips of cloth that just barely covered what needed to be covered and, if his suspicions were correct, she was moving in such a way to give him tantalizing, not-quite-enough-peeks on purpose. It was never enough to let him see what lay beneath the pieces of cloth and, while he had caught her naked one time before after they all accidently got hit with his stink spheres, somehow being teased like this… it just wasn't **fair**! However he couldn't say anything to make her stop because she would either play innocent or accuse of him of being some sort of pervert for thinking such impure things of her in the first place. Leaving also wasn't an option since his mind was having a little trouble coming up with a reasonable or even thin-styled reason for leaving the hot spring post haste. Then there was the fact that he couldn't look elsewhere because not only was Anko-sensei present but, for some reason, there seemed to be a wide variety of nubile young ladies staying at the hotel at the moment. He couldn't be sure but he thought he heard something along the lines of the unknown women being part of a travelling acrobat act. Whatever the case, if he even tried to look elsewhere other than the people he knew, it would only provoke Ayeka into trying harder, especially if one of the ladies he didn't know took his gaze the wrong way.

On the other he had Inuzuka Hana who, while not quite as scantily clad as Ayeka, was definitely acting out of character and he couldn't make heads or tails of it. On the one hand it looked like she couldn't care less about what was going on about her and just wanted to enjoy the comforts of the hot spring. On the other hand, when he looked a little too intently at Ayeka's teasing, the dog-like girl would make attempts to break him out of his hormonal haze. Sometimes it'd be something simple like just talking to him about something that would catch his attention, like his friends back in Sunnydale or what he intended to do now that the Uchiha assets were now his to handle as he would. Other times, when he was locked into a particularly sinful daydream, she actually got into his personal space to snap him out of it. She brushed it off as an option of last resort since nothing else seemed to work but, for some reason, she flushed a bit each time she did this, blaming the heat from the hot springs each time. If he wasn't so sure that such thoughts and actions were impossible for the Inuzuka girl where he was concerned, he'd think that the young woman was **jealous** of the attention he was giving Ayeka's actions. Of course this was complete insanity since the feral female often made a point of **enlightening** him of his shortcomings in a humorous way and rarely got along with him outside of serious missions. The very idea that she might be jealous of someone because of him was pure insanity of the strongest sort.

This wasn't some anime, after all, where a girl who constantly gives the male protagonist a hard time secretly has a crush on him that doesn't get revealed until the end of a major story arc or something.

Right?

Whatever the case, Anko wasn't any help whatsoever as the older woman seemed to find the whole mess he was in quite entertaining and even stirred things up a bit just as it looked like they might calm down for good. Of course he tried to corner her on her tactics but the woman refused to admit a single thing and then changed topics by asking him what Ayeka was doing right now in a surprised manner. This, of course, caused him to look the first couple of times to see what she could mean and, of course, every time he did this was when Ayeka was in a particularly brain freeze worthy position. He was getting better at resisting the urge to look but every once in a while he'd fall for her tricks, landing him right back where he'd started from.

Hell was the only way he could describe this trap of titillating temptresses.

Fortunately, though, it was then that nature called and he finally had a way of getting what he wanted: a way out of this situation that not even his teammates would be able to block. "Uh, looks like nature's calling. See ya!" he said before he bolted from the hot spring for the changing room where his clothes were located.

Then, of course, something bad had to happen in the form of him tripping over the edge of the hot spring, causing him to fall flat on his face. This by itself was painful but, when he began to feel something of a draft below his waist, his was reminded of one little fact that was causing him to heat up that had nothing to do with the hot springs. When they'd first learned about the hot springs from the clerk at the front desk, he'd talked to the others about it since his Halloween memories didn't really cover what they were like. Oh, he'd seen pictures and the odd clip on TV before, but it was common sense that both of those forms of media would leave quite a bit out. Most of what the rest of Team Anko had filled him in on was common sense but the one thing he'd been a bit wary of was what guys were expected to wear into the baths. From what he'd learned, while some of the more modern places like this allowed for swimsuits to be worn, the majority permitted only towels tied strategically in order to preserve modesty. According to Anko-sensei, some places only permitted the towels to be worn between the washing cubicles and the hot springs themselves, requiring that the patrons keep the towel out of the pool. In this case, though, the hotel let him keep the towel wrapped around his waist all the time but now… now because of his little fall, it was most definitely not where it was supposed to be at the moment.

The feeling of having every female eye on a certain area of his person washed over him and, in the privacy of his own mind, he found it to be worse than any murderous intent he'd felt since embracing the ninja way.

Using his hands to put the towel back to where it should be, he calmly got to his feet and proceeded to the changing area as he'd originally intended. Only when he'd passed through the sliding door and closed it did he allow himself to express his feelings openly.

"Thank **GOD**! I thought I'd never get out of there!" he muttered under his breath as he sagged for a moment against the sliding door.

He was a little ways away from the door when he felt a simmering sense of murderous intent coming from inside the hot spring area.

_Hopefully Ayeka won't do anything too crazy._ He thought realizing that for someone determined to be his wife any new rivals would not be welcome at all.

He wasn't too worried since he figured that Anko-sensei would step in if her Genin student went past a nasty water fight with the other ladies present. Hana would probably put in a token amount of effort in keeping her teammate from doing anything too nasty but it wouldn't be anything that'd cause the animal caregiver additional problems. So long as whatever happened didn't cause her problems personally, Hana wouldn't lift so much as a finger unless Anko-sensei ordered her to. In any case, though, he planned on being far away from this area of the hotel because otherwise he'd get dragged back in, never to be free again.

With that in mind he grabbed his clothes from a nearby basket on a shelf and headed to the changing room. If he took too long, his bathroom excuse would become suspect and they'd come looking for him.

The cunning prey knew better than to be anywhere near the lair of multiple predators.

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_**Three and a Half Days Later, Aboard the Passenger Boat the S.S Kani, Ayeka's P.O.V**_

_Looks like Kami-sama and I are of similar thinking when it comes to Dog-Girl._ Ayeka thought as she watched her feral teammate lean over the side of the ship once again, tossing her cookies.

It had only been three days since her perfect plan to tempt her way into Xander-sama's heart had been ruined by that flea bitten female's presence at the hot springs. It should have been perfect, a flawless way to completely storm the defenses around her future husband's heart, allowing her to claim it for herself. Instead it had turned into complete chaos with her every attempt at careful flirtation interrupted in some way or another either by someone she knew or a stranger. Then fate itself interfered when it compelled the Uchiha to visit the bathroom and then disappear when she went to check on him after it seemed to take too long for him to answer nature's call. Since it was impossible that he'd fled because of her, she could only presume that he'd been overwhelmed by the presence of so many distractions, thus causing him to run off. It was understandable considering that it was his first time at a mixed onsen but it was something she'd have to be careful of in future plans. Instead of going with such public or populated locations that could be full of just as many obstacles as there were aides, she would seek out something a little more private.

Maybe a private patrol of Sunnydale once they got settled in?

A definite possibility considering what Xander-sama told her and the other members of Team Anko about his hometown of Sunnydale. One of the things that Anko-sensei had been asking him about as they'd travelled was what sort of things happened on the Hellmouth and what they could expect when they arrived. What he'd told them so far made the place seem like ground zero for the strange and the bizarre with demons of almost every variety showing up sooner or later. Definitely a place where they'd never grow bored or complacent since, aside from vampires, it didn't sound like Xander-sama and his friends ever faced the same type of demon twice in a row. The Scoobies, as her future husband often referred to his friends as, also made a point of patrolling their hometown almost every night. Such patrols were usually made in groups of three or more for safety but, now that Xander was a Chuunin, she was sure he could be convinced to reduce that number to just the two of them. Such a setting would be perfect for a little private making out and maybe a little something more once she got him to finally admit that he had feelings for her.

Hearing another round of retching from Hana, she was reminded of the possible problem that was growing in strength within the Inuzuka girl. Ever since the second phase of the Chuunin exam, Dog Girl had shown herself to be progressively more interested in the newest Uchiha to become a Konoha shinobi. It hadn't surfaced as anything serious yet but she knew all the signs of growing affection thanks to her past attempts to secure a place amongst the more powerful clans of Konoha. If allowed free reign to develop, she could wind up having to deal with a very dangerous rival indeed since Hana would know many of her methods, including how to counter them. She would have to sow some seeds of disquiet between the two of them soon or else the Inuzuka girl might decide to act on her growing feelings.

Moving away from the unpleasantness that was a seasick Inuzuka Hana, she decided she'd see what Xander-sama was up to. When she'd last seen him he'd still been in bed and had claimed he'd be up in about fifteen minutes, but that had been an hour ago. Had he overslept or had he simply not come up onto the main deck like the rest of them had?

She was going to find out.

Going down the stairs that led to the lower decks and the room they'd been assigned for the duration of their trip, she passed a **somewhat** pretty young woman wearing a Chinese dress. She was carrying a cage with what looked like a long distance messenger bird but this wasn't entirely odd for this region of the world. Unlike most of the major countries in the world, the region wherein the Hidden Villages resided didn't have an extensive postal service that could be relied upon. For them, if they wanted any sort of mail to get from one place to another, it had to be done either by messenger hawk or a hired small time courier. Therefore she let the other young woman pass by unhindered while she continued her trip to where she believed Xander-sama would be located.

Turning the corner that would lead to the hallway where their room to be, she saw her future husband exiting it and locking the door behind him. Smiling at the fact that she wouldn't have to go looking for him, she picked up the pace a bit and this caught his attention almost immediately.

"Hey Ayeka! Sorry I took so long getting out of bed." Xander-sama said with his usual half grin, "I've always been something of a late riser."

"Not a problem, Xander-sama. I know I wouldn't mind sleeping in every once and awhile." She said, imagining several possible late risings with him involved, "Provided I have just the right incentive to stay in bed, that is."

She could easily see how the gears were turning inside his head and what the most likely meanings of her words were and, fortunately for her, those were **precisely** the sort he wanted him to be thinking about. After all, the more she got him thinking about it, the more he'd be forced to consider the possibilities that involved her, increasing the odds that he might actually open himself up to the romantic options thus allowing her to get her foot into the door. From there it'd be a simple matter wedging the door open more and more as time passed until she could walk fully into his heart.

"T-that's good to know. I guess it's a good thing that the cleaning lady they have on this ship thought to knock and wake me up." Xander-sama said a little nervously, scratching the back of his head, "I guess Anko-sensei must've asked her to come down to wake me up before I slept the entire day away."

_Cleaning lady? Huh. I guess it's possible._ She thought as she looked about the ship for a moment.

This wasn't the most luxurious boat in the world but it was definitely a few steps above a family-run operation, so it was entirely possible that they could hire a cleaning staff for all their trips. For a moment she thought that it might have been that young woman with the Chinese fashion sense but discarded that idea since there was no way that the people that called the shots would have their cleaning crew doll themselves up like that every single day they were on the job. To do something like that would wind up causing the staff to go through outfits like crazy and require the ladies to touch up their make up at least once an hour to keep everything perfect. Unless this boat had backers who were into burning money like that on a monthly basis, then there was no way Ms. Chinese was part of the cleaning staff.

_Whatever! The important thing is that now is to make the most of this day to move myself onestep closer to sole ownership of his heart._ She thought wrapping both of her arms around his right arm in order to pull it close to her body before saying, "Let's head up and see what this boat has in the way of entertainment. I'm certain we can find something to pass the time."

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_**The Main Deck of the Passenger Boat, Same Time**_

_I'd better inform Elder of where Uchiha is going now._ Conda thought as she finished writing her message in a special code passed down in her Amazon Tribe for generations.

Once she was finished, she rolled up the scroll into as small a form as possible before placing it into a tube tied to her messenger bird's leg. Once she was sure that her message wouldn't fall out during the trip, she released the bird into the air and watched as it soared towards its destination with all available speed. It would take about two days to reach its destination and then, presuming that the ones it was intended for left immediately, it would be another four before they'd reach their target. With luck they'd reach him before he left for the United States but if they did not, it wouldn't matter.

In the end the will of the tribe would be fulfilled.

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_**Four Days Later, Tokyo, Japan, Mid-Morning, Xander's P.O.V**_

_MAN! Twenty-four hours later and they're __**still**__ going at it! Give it a rest already!!_ Xander thought as he walked down the streets of Tokyo.

They'd arrived in Tokyo early yesterday after taking a plane from Guangzhou Airport to Japan and, after taking time for a quick catnap, they'd gone out to do their modern clothes shopping. Their cover of being a couple of cosplayers had worked pretty good and only the few times when one of them pulled out an awfully 'real' looking weapons did it almost fall apart. However those few times only happened because he got put on the spot about how Hana, Ayeka and Anko looked in their more mainstream outfits. While not as bad as he'd feared, their dress sense was a little rough when they didn't have to deal with articles of clothing not commonly worn in the ninja region. This, of course, led to him being asked questions about whether their combinations looked good or not and that meant all sorts of tense moments where he tried to phrase things just right. Most times he'd been able to answer quickly enough that they didn't suspect anything but those few times he took too long the one who asked would get annoyed. Then, of course, the other would either defend him or make a sarcastic remark about the outfit, resulting in the two butting heads. Between him and Anko-sensei they were usually able to defuse things but the one time that the purple-haired Jounin got dragged into it, resulting in the one time they'd gotten thrown out of a store.

This had resulted in what he was doing right now which was basically exploring the city, on his own, with the others knowing full well it'd be in the team's best interests to leave him be for a time.

He still considered them his friends but after the things Hana and Ayeka had done since they'd left Konoha, he needed some time for himself or else he was going to say or do something he'd regret later.

At the moment he'd say he was about halfway cooled down and could probably go back to being around them sometime in the next hour or so.

BOOM!

"AAAHHH! MONSTER!!" Came the cries of dozens of people from what looked to be a small park three blocks ahead of him.

_Better make that two hours if this turns out to be what I think it is. _He thought as he began to run towards where he figured the trouble was.

It was a little difficult on account of the fact that there were quite a lot of people trying to get **away** from the source of the commotion, but he eventually managed it. What he saw, though, made him look about the area for cameras or some sort of film crew because it looked like something out of a ten year old girl's TV show. The threat seemed to be some sort of blue skinned woman with a costume that had a serious ladies basketball theme to it with a basketball bra and basketball shorts. Woulda been kinda funny except the female was tossing around basketballs that turned out to be potent explosives capable of reducing a stone bench to gravel. The other weird half of the equation was that the five people fighting the weird blue basketball babe were teenage girls wearing some sort of superhero versions of sailor outfits. Skirts were short, shirts clung and they were all showing a lot of leg.

Not that he minded all that much.

They all had their own colors and so it sort of reminded him of those super sentai shows that were created over here, along with numerous variations. The more he looked at it, though, the more he was convinced this was the real deal rather than some staged thing for a TV show and that meant it might be in his best interests to stick close by in case these ladies needed a hand. They looked like they knew what they were doing based on their movements and the lack of hesitation, but he knew how complacent even the best could get after doing the same old routine over and over again. At the same time, though, he knew that Anko and the others wouldn't like it if he got caught on camera doing his ninja thing or even doing anything to draw attention to himself. Moving into a nearby alleyway, he did a quick check of the area to make sure he wasn't being looked at by anyone then quickly performed the transformation jutsu. The form he chose had been a slight modification of the one he'd used to escape Kaede's town with Ava with features from some ninja videogames like a scarlet scarf covering his face from top of his nose on down. It was probably enough to obscure who he was and maybe cause a few spectators to dismiss him as some fanboy trying to be a hero. The only thing that would get him trouble would be if he used too many moves or techniques that could be traced back to the ninja region of the world. If pressed, he might be able to use some of the moves his Sharingan managed to copy from the Tarakan assassins he killed or a few things he'd picked up on his trip, but that'd be pushing it.

_It's not like there could be a lot of ninja in town and it'll be tough enough bluffing my way past the others if I get caught on film._ He thought as he used the tree climbing exercise and a little muscle power to get to the rooftops.

Mentally going through the list of ninja gear he had concealed on his person before leaving the hotel room, he knew he had a kunai holster hidden beneath the right pant leg of his shorts, one explosive tag per glove and a flash bead bracelet on his left wrist. It was emergency gear, just in case, but it should get him through this little spat without too much difficulty.

Looking down at the battlefield below, he could see things were getting a little tough for the color coded girls since the battle was slowly sliding in the basketball femme's favor. The lightning, golden energy, fire, water and…were those hearts (?!?) were managing to keep the thing off guard but it was getting harder for them with every minute that passed. Whatever the thing was, it was definitely something more than they were used to judging by the looks of surprise they sometimes showed on their faces after scoring a hit. Still, this was their territory and they showed signs of doing this sort of thing many times before, so he'd wait a bit longer.

Or not as he watched one of the ladies with a green and pink color combo be three seconds too slow in getting clear of the blast radius of the latest bombshell basketball.

Taking a quick glance at the others, he could tell that even if they went to their friend's aid right that minute, there was a better than fifty percent chance they'd be too late to save the brunette from a follow up strike. Diving off the edge of the building, he used chakra to slow his descent as he slid down the side and, once he was certain he could leap off without breaking his own neck, he made his move. Channeling the chakra he was using to slide down the side of the building into his leg muscles, he leapt towards the still-dazed sailor girl, picked her up and leapt away just in time to avoid a double whammy from basketball babe. He landed a good fifteen feet from the outer edge of the blast and gently sat the young lady onto her feet since it looked like she could stand under her own power now.

"W-who are you?" she asked as the last of the disorientation from the blast that knocked her on her butt dispersed.

"A friend." He replied, deciding that the less info he gave her, the less complicated his life would get.

With those two words he figured he'd committed himself to helping these ladies so he pulled two kunai from his holster and threw them at basketball babe. Both struck their target, one in the shoulder while the other hit a basketball that was a second away from being thrown, causing the femme monster to direct her attention towards him. Deciding to go with it, he charged forward, all the while dodging the bombs being thrown his way. Truth be told, while this femme might have some decent ba-booms, neither her aim nor the speed at which she threw them were anything compared to Ayeka. It was almost too easy to dodge them and close to taijutsu range to take her down.

Then, just as he was about to deliver a kick to her jaw, she showed him that the two halves covering her assets weren't just for show.

BOOM! BOOM!

Turned out the two half basketballs that made up the blue babe's bra could be fired off when necessary and they packed one helluva wallop. Fortunately, though, the power behind the halves was considerably less than that which you'd get from a whole basketball bomb, otherwise he'd be decorating the entire area in blood red. As it was, he could not keep his alternate form active and knew he couldn't risk another hit like that. In any case, though, it knocked the cockiness out of him and that could only be considered a good thing in his mind, but the blast had damage the henge that was keeping his face obscured. He hadn't thought to change his looks along with his outfit and had counted on the scarf to keep him from being positively IDed. With it coming apart and him unable to spare the time to fully re-establish the transformation form, merely enough to keep his face mostly hidden, he'd have to end this quicker than he'd thought he'd have to.

Landing on his feet after being knocked back by the blast, he skidded a couple of feet before deciding that he needed something that could distract the femme long enough for him to put an end to this. Grabbing the bracelet off his wrist, he quickly slipped off a single flash bead and threw it at the creature he wished to bring down. Then, just as it came within range of the being's face, he sent out a pulse of chakra, resulting in it detonating and covering everything within three feet of it in a blinding light. It was music to his ears to hear it scream out and a definite plus that allowed him to get in close to release the explosive tags in his gloves so that they could attach themselves to basketball babe. Once they were there he quickly leapt back out of the range of his target's explosives as well as his own before deciding to do the honorable thing by giving whatever this was a chance to come quietly.

"You now have two explosive tags on your body, both capable of rendering the limb they're attached to useless one way or another, so you have once chance to come quietly or get hurt." He said in his best badass voice as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"CHARGER!!" the female yelled before creating two fresh bomb basketballs in her hands.

"Your choice," he said before detonating the tags.

He'd upped the explosive power on the tags since he saw how badly they worked on Itachi and now, looking at the seriously burned, possibly broken, limbs on basketball babe, he'd say they were an unqualified success. She was down on one knee with the other one seriously banged up and an arm that didn't look like it'd be throwing anything anytime soon.

"Now, Sailor Moon!" came the voice of the tall brunette he'd saved earlier coming up from behind him.

"Right! RAINBOW MOON HEART ACHE!!" yelled the blonde with the two extra long pigtails coming down on either side of her head.

_Rainbow Moon what?!_ He thought wondering where the hell the girl came up with the name for that attack.

Wherever she came up with it, it did the job since, after it hit, the basketball babe turned back into a normal basketball and some sort of weird seed popped out of it. The seed then cracked, releasing a cloud of black vapor that seemed to cry out for a moment before dispersing entirely. Not exactly the oddest thing he'd ever seen in his life or even since he'd been clued into the supernatural, but somewhat anti-climactic considering the power basketball babe had displayed.

_Whatever! Time to get out of here before someone decides to take a picture of the new guy._ He thought as he prepared to scale to the top of the nearest building before roof hopping away.

"Wait! Who are you?!" asked the brunette as she clamped down on his right shoulder to keep him from leaping away.

She looked a little dazed, though he supposed she might still be recovering a bit from the earlier blast or suffered a relapse or something. He was no medical-nin and the memories he'd picked up from his Halloween personae focused more on hurting than healing, so he was clueless. Still, he supposed he should at least say a few parting words rather than rudely slip away like a certain souled blood sucking corpse he knew.

"Just someone who was passing through and saw that you and your friends could use some help," he replied with a smile that was mostly obscured, he hoped, by the partial henge. "Now, as much as I'd like to stick around and chat, it's going to get a lot more crowded here in a minute and I'd rather stay out of the limelight. Expect me when you see me, beautiful!"

With that he freed himself from her grip and leapt as high as his chakra empowered legs could take him, which, thankfully, was high enough to land on a nearby balcony which he used to leap to a nearby rooftop. From there he kept going from roof to roof until he was easily ten blocks away before dropping down into an empty person-less alleyway and cancelled the transformation jutsu. Looking over his appearance for anything that'd tip off Anko when he got back, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw nothing he couldn't explain away with a few well-chosen words. He could cover up the loss of the kunai and the flash bead easily enough since he doubted that anyone on his team was so observant that they knew precisely how many he had on him at any given time. Now, as long as no one or thing got a decent shot of him during the fight, he should be able to file this one away as a win for him with no harmful repercussions.

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_**Back at the Battlefield, Two Minutes Prior**_

"Who was that hunk?" Rei asked looking up to wear the ninja guy had gone after the battle with the daemon ended.

The person she asked, though, didn't answer but rather looked up in the same direction she was with 'the look' in her eye but this time it seemed a lot stronger than usual. The look was something that all of the Sailor Senshi had seen in the brunette's eyes at one time or another and, for the most part, it was just a temporary thing. Give it a week or more and she'd normally be back to her usual self.

Usually.

"Mako-chan? Are you alright?" Usagi asked before waving a hand in front of Makoto's face, "Hel-loooo!"

All Kino Makoto did was sigh with that starry look in her eyes, making it clear she wouldn't be moving from her current spot anytime soon. That could be a problem because, while the local P.D and government might tolerate the Sailor Senshi because they lacked their own ways of combating the monster of the week, sticking around and overstaying their welcome wouldn't be a good thing since it'd lead to questions none of them wanted to answer. Thus, with a little co-operation between Minako and Rei, they were able to take Sailor Jupiter away with them before the authorities showed up.

All the while though they were wondering what was so different about this ninja guy that would cause their teammate to go almost completely crush crazy.

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_**The Plane Ride to LAX, The Next Day, Anko's P.O.V**_

"Maybe I should go and see if Xander-sama is alright." Ayeka said with a surprisingly honest-looking face as she began to stand up.

"Sit. Down." She bit out as her bad mood since yesterday was perpetuated once more by one of her 'students'.

It had been hours, almost a full day, since Xander-baka had decided to play hero in Tokyo but she was still no closer to figuring out how she was going to explain things to Hokage-sama in her next report. On the one hand, he had done a pretty good job disguising himself and not once had he used a jutsu or technique or piece of equipment that could be traced back to Konoha. On the other, though, two or three civilians had managed to catch him on film fighting and, while grainy, it was possible that the shots of his face could be enlarged and enhanced. She'd have to wait and see what the tech heads back home had to say about the footage before she jumped to any conclusions. If things went right, she'd just get a reprimand but, if things went down the toilet, Team Anko would be recalled back to Konoha so fast it'd make their heads spin. Still, at least she'd get a sort of vacation out of the whole deal and that was something at least. While ninja of the various hidden villages did go abroad in the world occasionally to accomplish a mission, for the most part everyone pretty much stayed in that neck of the woods. This was mostly due to the fact that shinobi were their country's military and it didn't pay to have too many soldiers out in the field when relations between the various ninja nations were so delicate. In any case, she decided that she'd enjoy this time abroad for however long it lasted and prayed that if repercussions for Xander-no-baka's actions were on their way that they weren't too harsh.

Looking to Hana for a moment, she was glad to see that the feral young woman wasn't airsick because, after the long boat ride from Waterfall territory, she didn't want to smell vomit for a good long time. At the moment, though, the Inuzuka girl was fast asleep and her trio of partners were sedated in kennels in the cargo department. The feral girl wasn't too happy about that at all, which was understandable considering how close her clan was to their animal partners but, sadly, Konoha didn't have any private aircraft of their own, so they had to fly civilian the entire way to America. As such, Hana made periodic trips herself down to the cargo department of the airplane to check on her three furry friends, using some subtle jutsu to make it past the civilians. At the moment, though, she was catching up on some sleep while they jumped time zones and probably would stay that way for another three hours at least.

Problem was that they were due to touch down in LAX in about two and a quarter hours, so that would mean someone would have to wake the young lady up.

It was never a good thing to wake up Inuzuka Hana before she was good and ready to wake up.

The last person who did that wound up with multiple broken bones and was getting over a slight Inuzuka phobia.

Hearing approaching footsteps, she saw that Xander was back from his trip to the bathroom and, while she no longer was quite as mad at him for his bout of heroism, she wasn't ready to let him off the hook just yet. He needed to realize how important it was for ninja to remain in the shadows and not even approach becoming established fact. If the world at large knew about ninjas, **real** ninjas, then it'd only be a matter of time before every general, dictator and criminal organization in the world would want in on the action. They'd want to learn all the techniques, get ninjas permanently on the payroll and, before anyone knew it, there'd be a shinobi arms race where every country wanted their own standing army of transforming, flame-throwing soldiers. Not only would it pretty much make the hidden villages small town organizations, but it'd likely spark off a couple of wars along with lots more changes to the landscape of good old Earth. She knew that he knew it on a basic level, but until he started taking it more seriously, she had to keep him on a short leash.

"Welcome back, Xander-sama." Ayeka said in her usual loving 'you **will** marry me' voice.

It was amusing to see these two go at it and she had a feeling it wouldn't be too much longer before the Uchiha finally caved in enough to officially ask her out on a date somewhere. He'd put up an admirable defense, but even the strongest cliff face eventually got worn away by the crashing waves of the sea and Mishima Ayeka was definitely a force of nature. Her money was on it being another month before the Chuunin finally popped the question every girl wanted to hear from the guy she had an eye for. Whether or not the blonde actually made it all the way to the wedding dress and the title Lady Uchiha was anyone's guess. Persistence might get Ayeka her foot in the door but it would be actual dates and time spent that got the diamond ring on her finger. Until that time, though, she'd have her fun messing with the two of them and stirring the pot every time things looked like they were settling down a little too much.

She needed some giggles in this life of blood and death, after all.

"Nice to be back. Piece of advice though: do **not** eat any of the airline food." Xander said with a bit of a grimace, "It'll come back to bite you in about two hours."

"I know, which is why I made sure to eat that big meal before take off." She commented with a smile as she rubbed her student's faces in the fact that she'd seen this coming and planned ahead.

"Really? I just thought you had a thing for dango." Xander-kun said with levity in his voice.

"Only about as much as you have a taste for all things hot and wet." She said sexily before laughing at the look that produced on his face.

Especially when he turned to see a lustful look on Ayeka's face and then heard moan in a nice way in Hana's sleep.

She'd have to remember to ask the Inuzuka girl what was so pleasing about her dream when she woke up.

She had a pretty good idea already, though.

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_**Pulling up to Sunnydale High School, The Next Day, Early Afternoon, Xander's P.O.V**_

"I'd like to say home sweet home but, after having my chakra senses heightened, this place feels like a sewer of bad feelings." He said as he looked at the place where he figured the gang was on a Saturday.

"You think it feels bad? It smells worse than an Akimichi bathroom after a bad case of the runs." Hana said after sniffing the air and recoiling in disgust at what her nose was telling her.

"Well then be glad that my mom put some property in the box of things she gave me in her will." He said, recalling the deed in the box he'd opened prior to leaving for Konoha, "Seeing as how she didn't have the money to build a place from the ground up, odds are there's something already there. Might need a little fixing up, depending on how much money she put into maintaining it and how long ago it was built in the first place, but it's better than nothing."

"Any idea what this already existing building is?" Anko-sensei asked as they approached the High School.

"Nope. Just that the land is big enough to have a decent sized mansion or temple." He replied, seeing with a glance that the school courtyard that the damage done by his fight with the Tarakans had been completely repaired.

"If there's that much land then how'd your mom afford it." Hana asked, looking his way for a moment before continuing her surveying the immediate area.

"One of the only good things about building a town on top of a Hellmouth is that the death rates and craziness drives down the property values like no one's business." He replied, remembering a night when Giles had remarked how easy it was to find an apartment, "It still probably cost her a pretty penny but, depending on what she brought with her from Konoha and what she managed to scrounge up, she could've managed it."

"We'll go out and take a look at it after we meet up with your Slayer friend and her Watcher," Anko-sensei said as she pushed open the front doors of the High School. "We need to inform them about the new status quo around here. Hokage-sama should have all the paperwork in order back home so when the Watchers Council starts asking questions, they'll find we have all the right cards in hand."

He had to admit that he was looking forward to hearing about how the old men felt about having the terms of their stay dictated to them and having no choice but to accept. From what he could gather, the leaders of the Council thought pretty highly of themselves and wouldn't like the fact that someone managed to pull a fast one on them. Nor would they like being kicked out of the number one paranormal hot spot on Earth if there was something they could do to stick around. That was why they'd accept whoever Tsunade-sama chose to be Council representatives, even if they turned out to be Giles and a Slayer who was a little too American for their tastes. Of course he expected that Giles'd get orders to snoop on them and learn as much as was possible about the ninja arts, but the ANBU who even now was probably covertly shadowing them would put a stop to that. He hadn't shown his face to anyone but Anko since they'd left Konoha but, according to the Jounin, the guy made a habit of popping up every three days at the most inconvenient of times. Nothing special, strictly report and review, but that was how she preferred it. While he might be a Konoha shinobi, he hadn't exactly endeared himself to Team Anko and the fact that he had the support of the old farts on the village council didn't improve their opinion of him at all. It'd take something serious indeed to get any member of Team Anko to actually like the guy.

Walking through the halls, he hoped that Snyder wouldn't show up because he really didn't like the odds of Team Anko surviving the encounter without a punch or kunai being thrown. The man had an easy enough time pissing off normal civilian students who couldn't fight back, things'd get messy if he pushed Team Anko a little too far. Still, it was nice to be back in town and walking down the same old hallways. Konoha was nice and all but he still considered Sunnydale home and, despite all its flaws, he'd always be happy to come back to it.

It didn't take long for them to reach the library but, when he walked inside, he was surprised to find no one there. He knew that they knew he'd be arriving around now so there was no reason for the place to be completely vacant. Had something come up? This was Sunnydale after all and it was possible that something Hellmouthy had happened since he'd called them the previous night but that still should have meant at least one person in the library doing research.

"Where is everyone?" Ayeka asked looking about the room, "I thought you said they'd all be here."

"Normally they are. Something must have happened." He said before turning around to leave the library for the next most likely place where his friends could be, "If they're not here then they're probably at Giles' apartment. Let's go."

While they were making their way to the front entrance, he had to wonder at what could be so big and Hellmouthy that the gang wouldn't wait around for him to show up before getting down to business. Vampires acting up? Maybe, but without a Master level vampire leading them, they were pretty much the cockroaches of Sunnydale. Nothing any seasoned demon hunter needed to worry about except in large numbers. The demons? Also maybe, but it'd have to be a pretty heavy hitter to cause the gang this much concern. If that was the case then that was more than enough reason to beat feet over to G-Man's place to figure out what was going on.

Pushing the front doors open he only heard a slight snapping to tip him off before something unleashed a blinding flash of light that made it impossible to see anything. Whipping out a kunai he, could hear the others bracing themselves for an assault just like a trained ninja should but, until they got their sight back, they'd have to stay defensive. He then heard exclamations of surprise all around and soon discovered the reason as something metal and rope-like pinned his arms to his sides before the other end got stuck in the ground. While he tried to think up a way out of this mess, he had to admit it was a decent enough plan. Distract them with the equivalent of a flash bead while at the same time blinding them and then seal their movements with some sort of restraint cable or something. If his suspicions were correct, they'd get hit with the finishing blow anytime now and, unless he wanted to get knocked out or dead, he needed to come up with a way to get free and **fast**.

He never got the chance to do any cogitating, though.

Seconds later two people, fine females if the curves were any hint, glomped onto him, wrapping their arms and legs around him securely, making it even more difficult to move. Were they kage bunshin? Was this some sort of mutual suicide jutsu? He didn't know and he was clueless about who'd want him dead so badly that they'd be willing to die with him just to make sure he perished. Whatever the case, he was well and truly screwed because while he might have been able to form hand seals before with just the metal cables the arms and legs now made movement of his arms impossible. Caught unprepared on what he'd thought was safe territory and effectively taken down, along with the rest of his team, he had to wonder if this nullified his promotion to Chuunin. After all, while not Jounin, ninja of his current rank were supposed to be better than this and yet he'd just been skillfully captured like a freshly graduated Genin. Disgusted with himself for his carelessness, he waited for the end that was approaching him and hoped that Sasuke would do a better job restoring the clan than he had while he'd had the job.

SMOOCH! SMOOCH!

Kisses? He'd just been kissed on either cheek by these ladies?!

What the hell!?!

"Wo ai ni!" Came two somewhat familiar female voices from either side.

By this time the effects of the flash were beginning to lift allowing him to look about and figure out what the hell had happened, what was going on and why the two ladies wrapped around him had just kissed him. Looking down, he confirmed that he had a metal cable wrapped around his torso, pinning his arms to his sides at elbow level with the opposite end of the restraint stuck deep in the ground. Fairly thick and certainly not something he could power his way out of even if he channeled a large amount of chakra to his arms. Lifting his gaze, he looked to his right to find a young woman roughly his age with jet black hair wearing a Chinese style outfit looking at him with the same face that Ayeka sometime gave him whenever she was in one of **those** matrimony moods. This didn't clear anything up, so he turned to look at the other one attached to the other side of his body in the hopes that things'd clear up. The other was a brunette with ribbons in her hair that made her look quite cute indeed, wearing loose pants, sandals and a shirt that had obviously been bought to accentuate her ample endowments. Unfortunately for him she was looking at him much the same way her raven haired partner was, which made him increasingly worried since it could mean potentially troublesome had just landed in his lap.

Perhaps even something really troublesome, considering he was getting a sense of déjà vu like he'd seen these two young ladies someplace before.

"Amazon law has been fulfilled. Congratulations, Uchiha Alexander." Came a more mature voice from above.

Less than a second later an older version of the brunette attached to his body dropped down in front of him, wearing an expensive looking but durable cheongsam with a smile on her face. Figuring that finally someone had appeared who could give him some answers, he decided to ask the most important question first.

"Could you please explain what just happened?"

"Simple. Weeks ago we met in southern China while aiding our sister Xian Pu pursue a female outsider who had defeated her in combat. You unknowingly covered for that foul young girl and thus we were required to slay you." Replied the older woman the smile never leaving her face, "However, with your skill and abilities as a Konoha ninja, you defeated the four of us in honorable combat. In doing so, though, you set off the chain of events that have brought us to this moment and this situation."

The clueless look on his face must have been clear because, with a look of some annoyance, she rolled her eyes before looking at him squarely.

"According to Chinese Amazon law, if a man from outside of the tribe defeats a woman of the tribe, then that Amazon is required to marry that man as a point of honor." The older woman explained plainly, "Bluntly put, the young woman on your left, Pu Fium, as well as the one on your right, my daughter Lu Xion, are now by the laws of our tribe your future wives."

Definitely troublesome!

_To Be Continued…_

Note: THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL!! Let me just make that clear from the very beginning. I will be writing a sequel to this like my other completed works but before I can do that I must finish off a few more of my in progress fanfics that have not yet been completed. Just as there are fans of this fanfic I have people who like my other works as well who want them continued and completed as well. Therefore I ask for your patience in the matter and hope that you will stick around for the time when I do manage to get the sequel to this fanfic up and running.


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